Fragments
by sombreromoustache
Summary: Coping with loss needs the support of loved ones. But loved ones need just as much support. (Art by Chimu-ke) (Lapidot) (Prosthetic-Peridot, Modern, College AU)
1. Chapter 1

A new school with unfamiliar faces, uncomfortable desks, and the uninteresting atmosphere wasn't new to Lapis Lazuli. She could not find anything in her class that she hadn't seen before, leaving her insanely bored and disinterested in the world around her. She only stared ahead, scratching her blue-dyed hair.

Her trance was broken by the random tapping on her shoulders. She looked behind her desk and saw a bespectacled girl with wide eyes looking at her, "Um, hi."

Lapis blinked, and turned away from her, "Wait! I wanted to ask you, uh. I wanted to know if you dyed your hair blue?"

"I did," she answered, not turning back to face her.

The blonde muttered to herself, "So, the school lets you dye it?"

"It's for religious reasons," she lied. She hated her natural hair color, so she lied to the officials of every school she went to that it was dyed to mourn a relative that was very much alive.

"Oh," Lapis hoped this would end their conversation, and she could resume her meditation of apathy. Again she felt her shoulders getting tapped, and looked back at the green-eyed girl, "Um, do you, uh-

Lapis rubbed her eyes before glaring at the girl, "What do you want? I'm trying to get some sleep I-

She looked down at a booklet with a cat-like creature on the cover. She stared it for a few seconds before shifting glances to the girl, "Um, do you like Klonoa?"

Lapis raised her eyebrows in confusion, "What's a Klonoa?" she asked, attempting to match how the girl pronounced the strange word.

She was disappointed with this answer, but still kept a hopeful smile on her face, "It's a video game where you play as this guy, his name's Klonoa and-

"Sorry, I don't really play video games," Lapis interrupted her.

"Oh," she muttered, "Um, well my name's Peridot! Peridot-

"Peridot! If you don't mind, we're in the middle of class!" the teacher admonished her, "Now pay attention.

She looked down at her desk in shame, avoiding eye contact with the rest of her class that had started staring at her. She looked on the floor for the booklet, getting nervous as she started thinking if she lost it.

For the rest of class Peridot couldn't stop thinking about how she might have lost the booklet to one of her favorite games. Every half-minute, she looked around the desks trying to find anything that vaguely resembled the booklet. When class finally ended, she was the first one to burst out of her desk as she scoured over the classroom, trying to find her lost manuel.

"It's Lapis," Peridot saw the Klonoa cover in her eyes and immediately grabbed it, "The cat looks cute."

Peridot adjusted her glasses and smiled, "Th-thanks. Um, you read it during class?"

Lapis and Peridot walked out of the class and into the mass of middle schoolers flooding the halls, "I've listened to more than enough lectures about the pythagorean theorem than a person should. I just tuned her out and read your little booklet," she explained.

The two walked together not speaking as they made their way through the endless waves of people, "So lunch is next, and, would you like to, sit with me?"

Lapis nodded, "Sure. Besides I don't know where the cafeteria is," she followed Peridot after they waited for the halls to fizzle out. While she was led, she noticed that Peridot was even with her in height.

* * *

 **Five Years Later**

Peridot woke up, already telling that it was late in the morning by how the sun's light was coming straight down. She pulled herself to the edge of her mattress, pushing her hair out of her eyes while she yawned. She pulled herself off the edge of her bed, balancing herself on one foot, feeling the strain in her right leg.

"C'mon. It's just a few steps," she groaned to herself, "You can make it." She looked across the room to the swivel chair in front of her tv. She attempted one step before losing her balance. She fell on the floor, breaking her fall by catching herself on her mattress.

Peridot moved her toes to check if anything was broken, feeling her leg to feel if anything hurt. She could still feel the metal rod in her leg, guiding her finger over the long scar. She looked to her right and sighed to herself. She reached for her prosthetic leg and pulled it to her right knee, pulling the leg of her shorts up. Briefly, she felt the tip of her knee feeling the end of her leg with her fingers. Peridot pushed those thoughts away as she attached the prosthetic to her knee, pulling the socket over the residual limb. Once she felt that it was safely attached, she pulled herself up, standing straight and balanced. She walked across the room, and planted herself in her chair. And because she intended to spend the rest of her day in that chair, she removed her prosthetic and moved it to the side of her chair. Peridot turned on one of her video game consoles with the intention of wasting the entire day on that game.

As the game booted up, she checked her phone and went to one of the dozens of social media apps her mother had downloaded for her, going to Lapis Lazuli's page. Nothing out of the ordinary, but she liked her posts regardless. Her game finally loaded and she queued up for quick matches against randoms.

A few hours later after dealing with a garbage team, she cursed at her tv before quitting out. Peridot sat back in her swivel chair as it spun. She stared at the ceiling watching her view of the ceiling shift as she pushed her chair to spin. Her phone reminded her that it existed by vibrating a message from her mum, though she ignored her message and started texting Lapis.

"Hey. Do you wanna come over tonight?" she clicked send and resumed staring into the ceiling listening to the ambience from her tv. The instant her phone blared its ringtone, she checked to see if Lapis messaged her back.

But immediately, her mood soured, "Not today, Peri. Too much studying."

She hunched herself over and looked at the ground, "Yeah. I figured not today either," she looked at her phone and looked at the message her mum sent her.

"Did you take your GED test today?" followed by a few emoticons that were meant to show signs of hope.

Peridot checked the time on her phone, "Oh. It's five thirty," she muttered realizing that she was four hours late to her test.

* * *

 **A/N So this is a little story that I've been wanting to write for a while. To explain if any of you were confused by the format, the first half of this chapter is when Lapis and Peridot were in eight grade. And the second half is Peridot a year after she should have graduated highschool. Not every chapter will be like this, but I'll let ya'll know when it happens.**

 **Please check out the wonderful artist chimu-ke on tumblr. She's the original artist for this fanfic's thumbnail art and her art is what inspired me to write this.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Middle School - Eighth Grade**

* * *

Lapis expected Peridot to lead her into the long line of middle schoolers to get some grub, but instead Peridot chose to sit down at a table in a corner of the cafeteria, isolated from other people. She got a few glances from other students and a few teachers aimed at her blew hair, but at this point, there wasn't any reason to care about what other people thought of what she looked like.

What she was concerned about was the growling in her stomach, and that Peridot wasn't going to be leaving from her chair anytime soon.

"Hey, aren't we going to get lunch?" she poked her guide.

Peridot reached into her backpack, pulling out a lunch box, "You want this? I don't eat a lot, but my parents always give me this huge lunch every day," she pushed the bag to Lapis.

Lapis stared down at the bag, hesitating to open the lunch, "Are you sure you don't want any food," she realized her words were falling on deaf ears, "You're playing video games during lunch?"

"YES! Because all the teachers get pissed when I play it during class, so this is the only time I can actually play games!" Peridot ranted while she mashed buttons to punctuate every word, "Sorry, I just hate getting judged for playing games. It's like everyone I know just decided videogames are for kids when you're in middle school!"

Lapis nodded her head while biting into the club sandwich she dug out of the lunch bag, "Holy crap this thing is filled with meat," she scooted over to watch what Peridot was playing, "So what are you playing?"

Peridot's face flushed, "Um, it's... Pokemon. You know what a Pokemon is, right?" Peridot asked, unsure if she knew what she was talking about.

"I know what Pokemon is, I," now it was Lapis' turn for her face to get flushed, "I, I watch the anime every now and then."

Peridot put her game down, looked at Lapis straight in the face, and met her eyes with her own, so she could give her own proper response, "PFFFFTTT! AHAHAHAHA! You still watch that crap!?"

A few other students looked over at them wondering what the hell was going on in the nerd corner of the cafeteria, "Oh shut up, Mrs. Gameboy!"

"Excuse me, Miss Lazuli! This here is a DS, not a gameboy! And a gameboy can't play Pokemon LeafGreen. You're thinking of the Gameboy Advance-

Lapis shoved the rest of her sandwich to shut her up, "I don't watch it all the time, it's just something that, you know, if it's on I'll watch it," Lapis explained, looking at the screen of Peridot's game, "Is that Pikachu?"

Peridot swallowed her sandwich and glared at her new friend, "No. That is not a Pikachu this is a, you're messing with me aren't you?!"

Lapis laughed at Peridot's face, "Yes I know that's not a Pikachu," Lapis looked at the game screen again, "But for real, what is that?"

Peridot adjusted her glasses and looked back at her game, "It's a Sandslash. I never used him before but I thought of having him on my team as a challenge, so I... caught him and," she stopped to look at Lapis staring at her game, "I'm using him."

Lapis nodded, "So what is the point of this game?"

"You watch the anime right? So you know how Ash is trying to get all of the gym badges?" she waited for Lapis' nod to continue, "Well I got all of the badges so I'm going after the Elite Four."

"What about that tournament that Ash keeps losing?"

Peridot shook her head, "That's only in the anime. But right now I'm going through Victory Road but I didn't have enough Max Repels so I had to-

Lapis nodded while eating the rest of Peridot's lunch, vaguely listening to what Peridot was talking about and watching the game.

"Oh crap lunch is almost over," Peridot remarked as she turned off the system, "Um, do you have any classes with me?"

Lapis looked at her schedule and handed it to Peridot, "Do I?

Peridot scanned over the schedule, "We have, our last two class together! Awesome!" she handed the schedule back to Lapis, "See you later!" and before Lapis could get another word in, the shorter blonde had ran off to her next class.

Lapis shrugged her shoulders and walked out of the cafeteria to her next class. She wish the weather was cold enough for her to wear a jacket so she could cover up her blue hair. As much as she loved having her hair colored, she hated the attention she got from every school she went to, "It's fucking blue hair, you fucks."

"Watch your language!" reprimanded a monitor.

* * *

 **College - Freshman Year Second Semester**

The air was hot and humid, the nylon-polyester sticking to her body, and the sounds of splashing water filled the facility. Lapis stood in a line of women, waiting for their turn to climb a three-meter diving board.

"Excellent form, Clarise! Anna make sure you don't bend your knees or hips! Lapis show me how you do a reverse dive straight!" Lapis nodded to her instructor. She climbed the ladder onto the springboard, and walked towards the edge. Lapis bounced on the edge leaped into the air off the board. While all of the girls watched in a brief few seconds of wonderment, for Lapis time was slowed down to adjust her legs so they wouldn't bend. Her entire body turned until her head faced the water where she came plummeting down into the pool. She dived into the water gracefully, letting herself reach the bottom of the pool. She felt the submerged concrete before realizing she still required to breath air. She pushed with her legs to the surface and swam to the pool ladder, climbing out of the water.

"Excellent work, Lapis. And that girls is how you pull off a reverse dive straight," ever since Lapis had joined the Swim Team, Coach Pearl would always sing her praise, almost bragging about her abilities, "That about wraps it up for practice, so gather up everyone. Be here by 7:00 in the morning for the swim meet. Now what's the thing I always say the day before every meet?"

The girls could repeat her favorite phrase verbatim, "Nobody who ever gave their best ever regretted it," Lapis answered with her team.

"Excellent! I'll see you all tomorrow," and with that, their team was dismissed. And while the rest of the girls made a beeline to the shows, Pearl stopped Lapis before she could join her team, "So Lapis. Any luck getting her to come?"

Lapis shrugged, "I don't know. It's a hassle to get her out of her room," she gave her coach a wily smile, "But I have a secret weapon, coach."

"A secret weapon, huh?" Pearl laughed with her student, "As long as it gets her to show up. See you tomorrow, Lazuli!" she waved goodbye as she walked into her office.

Lapis thought of her "secret weapon" still not sure if it would work. She still thought about Peridot while she grabbed a towel on her way to her locker. As she dried her hair out with her towel she wondered if Peridot had texted her at all during practice. When she opened her locker and looked at her phone and saw the six text messages she got over the last two hours.

"Holy shit my team fucking sucks. We finally got a healer. Fuck she's useless. I rage quitted and I'm playing Animal Crossing now. Nevermind, Resetti got pissed at me and I threw the game across the room and then I crawled across the floor to get it back. Anyways let me know when you're done with practice," Lapis read her girlfriend's texts out loud while she changed into more casual clothes.

Peridot was a hard person to motivate, Lapis realized while bringing up the camera app on her phone, but she wasn't very hard to persuade.

A quick picture of herself with her wet hair pushed back, with the text, "Hey do you wanna hang?" was likely more than enough to get Peridot in the right mood.

Not even a full minute later as she started her car up, she got a response from Peridot. Lapis didn't need to read it; she knew Peri was always up to hangout.

* * *

 **A/N Let me know what you guys think of this format? And overall what you're thinking of the fic. I hope you don't find the game references overbearing. And if you do well... brace yourselves for some anime ones. :D**


	3. Chapter 3

"Let me tell you! You are nothing but a clod! And I'm blocking you, asshole! You want to get protected! Stop fucking complaining when you run out and get shot down, you clod!" Peridot swore into her microphone, screaming at her fellow player that told her off for failing to protect them.

Lapis Lazuli was only outside Peridot's house and she could distinctly and very clearly hear her girlfriend swearing at her game. She looked at some of the neighbors stared awkwardly at Peridot's house before brushing them off and walking into her home away from home. At the moment, no one was home besides her girlfriend, leaving the house quiet. If she wasn't hearing Peridot swearing at her television, it would seem like she was wandering in an unattended home.

Lapis walked to a fridge and pulled two sodas out of a box. She walked through Peridot's empty house to the only sign of life.

"Hey," Lapis knocked on the door.

She heard scrambling on the side of the door, "Sorry! I'm on one leg right now!" she replied.

Lapis listened to her attach her leg, patiently waiting for her girlfriend to come to the door.

Peridot opened the door for Lapis, instantly looking up at the swimmer, "Sorry. Come in, my room is finally clean for once. Heh heh.," Peridot awkwardly laughed.

The most distinct difference between Peridot and Lapis was the near foot between them. Back in middle school, the two of them were the same height, but during and after high school Lapis got a massive growth spurt that put her at five foot ten, while Peridot stayed at five feet.

Lapis sat in the swivel chair at the foot of the tv, inviting her girlfriend to join her, "You want to tell me about your day?" she followed her request with a wink.

Peridot blushed while she joined Lapis in the chair, sitting over the edge of the chair. If there was one upside to Peridot's small size, it made it easier for Lapis to hold her anywhere. Even there, Lapis held her girlfriend close to her chest, so she could feel her heartbeat reverberate through her body. And more importantly her chest on Peridot's back.

Peridot didn't breath, her face was turning several shades redder than it ever did before. Even if she could get a word through her mouth, she didn't dare want to end this moment. She wished it could last forever.

Lapis Lazuli lived to make sure that it wouldn't when right in Peridot's ear, she blew out a raspberry that to most people would've been a quiet but nonetheless intrusive raspberry, but right in someone's ear, specifically the ear of a woman who was very easy to fluster, especially when she wasn't expecting it, well, the next series of shouting let the world knew that Peridot did not find it pleasant to have a raspberry blown in her ear.

"SCREW YOU, LAZULI!" she shouted while on the floor, pointing to a laughing Lapis.

When she was done laughing at her, she offered her hand to Peridot, "Sorry, you knew I couldn't resist," she joked to her while Peridot sat in her lap again.

"You and your fart jokes,"

Lapis hugged Peridot from behind while she watched Peridot play a game, "I love them almost as much as I love you."

"Could you stop being gay and get on the point?!" a disgruntled player complained.

"Sorry!" she muttered into her mic before silencing herself, "So, how was your day?"

Lapis watched Peridot's character, a hulking man in armor shouting with a German accent with a blue shield, "It was a day. Studying for finals, swim practice after studying, and then I came here. It's the same as every other day besides, you know, coming here. That's usually a once or twice a week sort of thing."

Peridot nodded while she listened to her, "How's swimming?" she asked, focusing on her game using the character's hammer to hit other characters.

"I actually wanted to ask you about that," she started her ploy, "So, I have something I want to give you."

"Ooh. A present? For me? What did you get me, Lapis?" Peridot asked excitedly, reminiscent of a puppy presented with a new chew toy.

Lapis was able to move herself from behind Peridot and out of the chair to her bag, "Firstly, I just wanna say you need to get a couch in this room, because holy crap that chair was not made for two people at once," she popped her back while walking to her bag, "Anyway, close your eyes. And no peaking!"

"What if you're topless while you're holding my gift?" Peridot asked, with a smirk on her face.

"Why would I take off my shirt to walk the short distance to give you your gift, and then putting the shirt back on?" Lapis asked, her tone of voice remaining the same and her face completely deadpan.

Peridot could only respond with a, "I, don't know?" raising her arms in confusion.

"You perv, you just want to look at my chest," though she was deadpan, she winked at her girlfriend before turning away to grab Peridot's gift in her bag. Peridot was facing away from Lapis, her eyes closed shut.

"Now no peeking," Lapis guided Peridot's arms to hold onto the wrapped present, "Now open your eyes."

The blonde opened her eyes and looked at the newspaper wrapping, "Wrapping paper! It's what I always wanted!" her sarcasm was on point, "But before I open this, why did you get me this? It's Spring. My birthday isn't until September and Christmas is like, you know. The end of the year."

Lapis came around in front of Peridot and kneeled down to make eye contact, "Well, you see-

"You want something from me,"

There was a short pause, only the game's audio breaking the silence, "Was it that obvious?"

"Ok, what do you want?" Peridot asked while she examined her gift.

Lapis prayed that her plan would work, "So, tomorrow is my swim meet. It's not really anything special, it's just a swim meet, my team is going up at eleven, and," Lapis looked Peridot straight in her eyes, reaching for one of her hands, "I want you to come and watch me swim."

It wasn't the best response Lapis was hoping for, but it definitely wasn't the worst, as a deep sigh doesn't always spell trouble, "I, well. I don't know. I'm still not ready for people to see me with this," Peridot nudged her prosthetic, tapping the plastic casing a few times.

Those weren't the words Lapis wanted to hear, but she did her best to hide her disappointment, "I-it's fine. I know this is still a problem for you and-

"No, I can do it," Peridot interrupted her, "I can wear jeans and cover this up, and," she paused to adjust her glasses, "I've wanted to watch you swim for awhile, I just, I don't know-

"Oh thank you, thank you!" Lapis hugged Peridot and kissed her on the cheek, "Now, open your gift!"

Peridot felt her cheek, getting just as red as Lapis' hair was blue, "I don't know, I think that was a pretty good gift."

"Oh you'll like this, trust me,"

Peridot looked at the wrapped, box-shaped gift and started tearing apart the wrapping paper, getting more and more excited as less of the newspaper held onto the box.

"No way! Where did you find this?! I've been looking for this for over two years!" Peridot looked over her new game that unfortunately its name is copyright protected, "Where'd you find it?"

Lapis rubbed the back of her head, smiling to herself, "I know some people and I pulled some favors. This girl in my physics class works at a Gamestop and she told me they had a copy and she would hold it for me."

"Nice! Now this is why I keep you around!" Peridot got out of her chair, nearly falling over, but not stopping her from hugging Lapis' waist.

"Really? It's not the blue hair, my sense of humor, or that I'm a swimmer with a decently sized chest?" she helped Peridot up to her feet, "I'm glad you like it."

The two held to each other close, both loving and every moment they had together, "You know I'm kinda burnt out on this game, do you wanna watch Camp Pining Hearts?" Peridot asked, looking up at Lapis.

The blue-haired swimmer gripped her heart, "Oh, Peridot! You know just the words to make a girl happy!" she giggled, "You set it up, I'm gonna grab those bean bags you have."

"How long do you wanna watch?

"Uh? Just until midnight. Remember I have to be there at seven!"

"Seven? You poor soul," Peridot remarked while she started playing Season Three of Camp Pining Hearts, the show's familiar jingle resonating with her, causing her to hum along to it as she sat down in her bean bag.

"Hey, you have to be up by then too," Lapis reminded her, joining her girlfriend to sit in the beanbags to enjoy Camp Pining Hearts.

"Then let me get comfortable," just as the episode was about to begin, Peridot pulled the leg of her shorts up to remove her prosthetic, putting it to the side.

* * *

A few hours later, Peridot and Lapis ended their binge and clocked out for the night. Underneath the covers, Lapis held her shorter girlfriend close to her, kissing her on the neck before letting sleep overcome her.

* * *

 **A/N in case you are wondering. The game Lapis gave her was Omega Quintet. All writers are advised to write what they know. So I did. I'm still looking for that effing game. And Peridot was playing Overwatch. Because obvious choice is obvious.**

 **I appreciate that you guys waited for this patiently. Thank you. Chimu-ke is a wonderful artist who drew the art for that i used as a thumbnail. Pls follow so she can draw more.**

 **Peridot is a Reinhardt main, btw. Also fun fact, the rock is actually supposed to be pronounced "Pear-rih-doh." Rebecca Sugar has ruined the pronunciation of a rock for a generation.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Middle School**

For Lapis, the school she was currently attending was most likely the most basic one she had ever gone to. Of the four teachers she passed on her way to class, two were excessively cheery though especially condescending of her hair color. Another teacher that looked like he was in his seventies glared at her, but then again his eyes had sunk deep into his sockets so maybe that was the only way he could look at people. Then there was her teacher who looked like she had given up on any ambition in life.

Lapis liked her.

Though she tolerated Peridot and thought she was ok, she wished that she was in her class so she had someone to pass the time with. Everyone else in the class looked like the most boring and lifeless people she would ever see. Then again she was just as lifeless looking as the rest of them. None of them batted an eye besides the few that noticed her blue hair. Having anything to pass the time would have been better than waiting for the teacher to lecture about crap none of them cared about.

It was then when Lapis realized she may have been a nihilist. Then again, when faced with middle school classes that were exceedingly easy for anyone that had common sense and test-taking skills, there's very little choice in becoming a nihilist. Was every middle schooler a nihilst? Was everyone who went to school a nihilist. Did Lapis know the meaning of nihilism? Not really. She knew it had something to do with either hating everything or not believing in anything. Either way, she fit those two bills.

The thoughts one has in a class you could give less than shits about were more interesting than whatever the teacher was mumbling on about, or any of the classmates who were whispering about some girls getting pregnant. Lapis remained silent and uncaring, and if it weren't for Peridot, the only things she would have muttered were her own name when the teacher called on her to make sure she belonged in the class. Truthfully, she didn't feel like she belonged in any class, but she replied yes anyway. Lapis believed that an answer that lead to the least amount of human interaction was her way to live.

And these half-baked philosophical discussions with herself were enough to get her through the next two classes until she saw Peridot walking from the other side of the hallway. She saw Peridot because she saw the blonde waving her hand above the mass of people.

"Hey! Where I sit there's been an empty spot for ages! You should sit there!" Lapis couldn't get a word in before she was sitting at a table with Peridot, "We don't need to worry about this class, the teacher barely does anything so we can just hang out and chill!"

"And by hangin' out, you mean play that Pokemon game?" Lapis quipped.

"Exactly! Man you're getting the hang of this really fast!" Peridot laughed, pulling out the Gameboy in her pocket, but putting it back in, "But I do wanna talk to you."

Lapis raised an eyebrow, "Really? You wanna talk to me? I can't guarantee I'll have very interesting things to say."

"Well, let's start with, wait there's the teacher," Peridot briefly paused before returning to their conversation, "Where did you move from?"

The blue-haired girl took a deep sigh, "We're starting with that huh?" she stared forward, as if reading off a script, "I lived in a little town in Delaware called Beach City until I was six. My parents divorced and my mom took off for the west with me. We lived in Nashville for six months. Couldn't stand the country music. Lived in Kansas City for two years, then Wichita for a whole year. Then we moved to this town called Fremont but my mom worked in San Jose and I went to school there for five years. And now I'm in San Antonio."

"Whoa! You've been all across America! That's so cool" Peridot exclaimed, her eyes filled with admiration.

Lapis only shrugged, "I guess. I don't think about it that much."

Peridot nodded, unsure what to ask next, deciding to just wing it, "Did you leave any friends behind when you moved?"

Lapis looked away from Peridot, "Every time."

Though they were in a class filled with boisterous classmates, to them it was completely silent, "I don't know what it's like to move away from friends," for the first time, Lapis heard Peridot speak completely deadpan, any humor from her voice gone, "I've never even had friends."

She felt a slender arm wrap around back, pulling her close to the blue-haired girl, "I know what that's like. Feeling alone. It sucks," she looked at the blonde in the eye, for once smiling, "Doesn't have to suck as hard with someone else."

* * *

 **Present**

Peridot woke up, earlier than she ever would on her own when she heard the shower across the hall turned on.

Peridot didn't always live in the room she was in. When she had her accident years ago, her parents moved her room and everything in it to the guest room across the hall from the bathroom, reasoning it would be a shorter walk than where her original room. Tragically, this meant that whenever guests were over, Peridot heard everything. Everything

And at five in the morning she heard Lapis showering across the hall. What Peridot wanted to do was turn her body over and go back to bed, as did most sane people at that hour. And briefly, Peridot considered this, before realizing that there was a smoking hot girl literally across the hall.

This alone was enough to wake her up and get her prosthetic attached. She pushed the door to her room open and knocked on the bathroom door, accidentally pushing it open.

"Who's there?"

Peridot couldn't find her voice to answer back when she heard the echoing off the shower walls, resulting in a raspy whisper, "It's me."

Lapis stopped in the middle of scrubbing her hair to turn towards the bathroom door. She shrugged her shoulders and said, "You can come in if you want to."

Peridot walked through the door, stopping in the center of the bathroom, unsure what to do or say next, "Hey, uh. You're up early," Peridot muttered.

"The meet starts up at seven. My coach wants us there an hour before it starts. I was gonna ask when you woke up, are you gonna come with me or are you gonna go there by yourself?" Lapis asked as she washed her hair out.

"My license expired a few days ago, so I'll take a ride with you," Peridot proposed, "So once you're done um, I'll... take a quick shower."

The short blonde nearly fainted when Lapis pulled back the shower curtains and smiled. "Care to join?"

Peridot stood frozen in place before regaining what little composure she had, "Um, could you, turn around, I need a moment?"

Lapis nodded and turned around, smiling over how cute she looked, "Let me know when you're ready."

She waited patiently under the stream of warm water for Peridot to get ready, smiling more when she heard her quietly mutter, "I'm ready."

Lapis was able to turn around to see Peridot taking off her glasses, and she took in the whole view. Peridot was much shorter than her, especially after Lapis' growth spurt that dwarfed her. Peridot didn't go outside very often since losing her leg, plus with being Irish, her skin was as white as milk. She tried desperately not to gush over them, but she loved Peridot's freckles that covered her chest, shoulders, and her face.

And while Lapis would never claim or take pride in being a perv, she would never gloss over Peridot's chest. If she was envious of Peridot about anything, it was how much bigger she was than Lapis. After middle school, while Lapis stayed the same size, Peridot blossomed into a woman. A tiny, angry woman. They weren't too large, but they were just perky enough, perfect for Lapis.

She briefly gazed at her legs: one leg was thin and pale with a long scar going from below the knee to above the ankle, and the other leg stopped at her knee, where the prosthetic was attached.

"You're.. You're staring," Peridot finally broke the silence, covering herself with her arms.

Lapis slipped out of her trance, "Oh, sorry. I guess, come in," Lapis invited her, watching Peridot walk towards the shower, stopping to sit on the bathtub walls to remove her prosthetic leg.

"Can you move the chair over here?" Peridot asked, pointing to the shower chair behind Lapis.

Lapis moved the chair next to her, "Need help getting on?"

Peridot shook her head, "Nah. I think if you touch me I might faint," she explained as she pulled herself onto the chair.

"Ouch. Didn't know you could be that savage, Peri,"

"WHAT?! I meant-

"I know what you meant," Lapis laughed to herself while picking up a bottle of shampoo, "You mind if I wash your hair?"

Peridot groaned, "Just 'cause I don't have a leg doesn't mean I-

"I know, i know. I wasn't pitying you, I just wanted to wash your hair," she irritably explained, "Sorry I keep cutting you off."

Peridot looked down at the soaked floor, "It's ok. Still tired," she answered, "You can... Wash my hair," she muttered.

Lapis grinned, squeezing the concoction in her palm, "Gladly," she rubbed the shampoo between her hands and started rubbing it over Peridot's head.

At first it was all kinds of discomfort for Peridot, until it subsided to slight agitation, and finally to a wonderful bliss. Lapis' hands were like magic, weaving their way through Peridot's thick hair and thoroughly cleaning it. By the end of their shower, Lapis had turned her hair from dirty blonde to light blonde.

"Hey Lapis," Peridot turned around to look up at Lapis

"Yeah?"

"I love you,"

Lapis smiled as she rinsed Peridot's hair out, "I love you too."

* * *

 **A/N hope ya'll appreciated that lewd and gay chapter.**


	5. Chapter 5

Peridot looked at herself in the mirror, fiddling with her shaggy hair to get it into a topknot, "Man, Lapis! Your fingers did magic to my hair!" she gleed over how soft and clean her hair felt.

"The wonders of actually using shampoo and conditioner," Lapis snarked at her girlfriend, "And if you think my fingers were magic then, well just wait-

"Up, bup, bup! Enough with that, you perv!" Peridot exclaimed, then going back to getting ready for the meet, "So how long is this swim meet going to last? Three hours, ten hours?"

"Just four hours, so you won't be there all day. Meet starts at 8, so you'll have to watch the other age groups," Lapis explained.

"Well in that case," Peridot excused herself from the bathroom, walking to her bedroom, and coming out stuffing her Vita into a handbag over her shoulder, "I've been wanting to grind in this game for a while so this will be the perfect opportunity!"

Lapis realized that after dating this nerd for five years, she really shouldn't be surprised anymore, but Peridot 'kept one upping herself every time. It's why she loved her.

"So are you ready to go?" Lapis asked as she pulled her duffel bag over her shoulder.

The blonde felt her left leg, making sure it was properly attached, "Yeah I'm ready."

* * *

It had been years, literal years since Peridot saw what a morning looked like. Rarely she ever got up earlier than nine and when she did, she still buried her head in pillows for two hours. And for the first time in a long time, Peridot saw what the morning sun look like, and even better, the sky was in a condition where anyone could comfortably look at the sun.

"Man, it's like, a giant egg yolk in the sky," Peridot thought out loud, gawking at the star like a child in an aquarium.

"A giant egg yolk," Lapis repeated, laughing out loud by the end, "Never was an egg fan myself."

"You will give me an egg," Peridot muttered.

"What?"

"Nothing, nothing. You know I wouldn't mind stopping for some breakfast," Peridot suggested, looking hopefully at her girlfriend.

"Don't get your hopes up, Peri. Besides there'll be plenty of tacos there. If you want I can get you some," Lapis offered as she got off a freeway.

"Hell yeah! Sounds awesome!" Peridot exclaimed.

For the rest of their drive to Lapis' school they small-talked about the random fandoms they indulged in, along with the Camp Pining Hearts discussion which ended in a light-hearted argument over their OTPs.

"Look Lapis. Objectively, Pierrcy is the best ship and makes the most logical sense. You just gotta face facts," Peridot declared as she shot out of Lapis' car.

Lapis cut the ignition to her car, laughing at Peridot's statement while she got out, "Oh please Paulcy is so obviously better in every way. Besides you saw that episode. It was canon."

"SHE WAS MANIPULATING THAT POOR SOUL!" Peridot practically screamed in the parking lot, regaining her composure when she noticed people were staring, "So this is your school, huh?"

"Yep. First time on campus," Lapis reached for Peridot's hand, cupping it in her own, "C'mon. I'll lead you to the pool."

Peridot followed Lapis across the parking lot, never letting go of her as she tried to keep up, "Hold up. Still on one leg, remember?"

Lapis slowed down, letting Peridot catch up with her, "Sorry. Got so excited I forgot you only had one," she admitted.

"Only one leg and a huge metal rod in the other," she added.

"Hey if you'd like, I can put a huge rod in you," Lapis winked at her.

"Gross. Just no. Can't believe you're into that,"

Lapis gripped her chest in an over-the-top manner, "Oh, Peridot! Your kink-shaming! It breaks my heart!"

Peridot rolled her eyes, "Even though you're the one who dragged me out of the closet, I'm still gayer than you."

"PFFT! You think that just because you're not into pegging or lady dicks, it makes you the gayer one?"

"Um, yes. Yes I do,"

"You know, I am not going to have this argument right now,"

"That's one way of admitting defeat to the truly gay one in this relationship," Peridot arrogantly declared here victory.

Lapis only shook her head while they walked to the gym. Already, several schools from across the country were gathering at the college to compete. Lapis wasn't worried about the other competitors, believing that as long as you were calm and collected, you would always do your best. And since she was in the top five on her team, it's safe to say that it worked out great for her.

"So where do I go? And where can I get those tacos?" Peridot broke the silence.

"I'll grab a couple from the locker room. But before I do I want you to meet my coach," Lapis answered.

"Your coach? Why?" Peridot asked, suddenly pulling her hood over her head.

"You know. Me and my coach have a friendly relationship and she's always asking about you, so I thought this meet would be a good time to, you know. Meet her,"

The shorter blonde only shrugged. Not the best reaction but not the worst reaction she could have gotten from her, "The way you're describing her, it sounds like she's your mom."

"Ehhh, more like a student and a teacher friendship sort of thing. Not anything like that anime I showed you," Lapis explained.

But before long, Lapis and Peridot made it to the gym where dozens of men and women were standing around waiting to get into the gym's locker rooms and then to get into the pool. When they walked into the pool room, Peridot instantly regretted wearing a jacket. The tall room with the expansive amount of water filled the air with hot humidity.

At a desk between a mound of papers and timers and a mountain of boxes filled with tinfoil-wrapped tacos was a woman with hair so blonde it looked white. She was so busy that she she didn't look up when the duo approached her.

"Busy at the moment. Sign in's are in the locker room and the tacos are on the other side of the pool," she pointed to another table at the other end of the gym.

"Is that really something you should be saying to your star swimmer?" Lapis playfully asked.

The woman looked up at the blue-haired girl with a faux-condescending look, "And are you just here so you can get tacos before the rest of your team?"

"No. Well, yes in a way. See, I know you keep asking about my girlfriend-

"Who is Peridot Olivine?"

Lapis briefly nodded her head to let out a small sigh, basically saying, "You have brought up the running joke between us once again and I am pausing to stop myself from laughing. This was very much a haha funny moment, Coach," before looking back up to continue, "Yeah. So I brought the woman herself," Lapis presented Peridot

Peridot assessed the woman in front of her before offering her hand, "Um. Hi. It's, nice... to meet you," she stammered.

Pearl took her hand and shook it, the smile never leaving from her face, "It's lovely to meet you at last. I'm Pearl Aragonite, coach of the swim team. Lapis has told me a lot about you."

"Oh, she has?" Peridot looked at Lapis for clues as to what she should respond to her with.

"I wish we had a better opportunity as I'm," Pearl looked at the mass amount of papers she was still working on, "Quite busy. But it was lovely to meet you at last," Pearl finally noticed that Peridot was staring at the box of tacos, "And please. Help yourself to-

Before she could finish, Peridot already grabbed three of them, and if Lapis hadn't nudged her, she wouldn't have said this to Pearl, "Thank you for breakfast, and it was great to meet you too," Peridot briefly nodded before turning to her girlfriend and muttering, "I'm gonna find a place to sit."

The two women watched her leave to sit at the top of the stands, "Well. I can see why you love her."

"She's really shy. You're probably the first, newest person she's talked to in years," Lapis explained.

"Hey don't worry about it. You brought her here so she can watch you swim, not so she can meet me," Pearl briefly looked to the young woman chomping on the folded tortilla while she was busy with a game, "But I won't deny it was a treat to meet her at long last."

Lapis pressed her hands together in a bowing sort of fashion, "Thank you. This is why we're friends."

"And I'm also your coach," Pearl reminded her, "Go get changed, meet up with your team, and get ready."

Before Lapis left she attempted to grab one of the tacos, but Pearl closed the box with its cover, slyly shaking her head, "Get moving, Lazuli."

* * *

Through some blessing from a god she didn't believe in, Peridot was not only able to connect to the school wifi, but she was able to get a match running in one of her fighting games, actually finding people on the Vita. To the three people who own a Vita who are reading this, you understand.

Peridot hadn't mentioned it to Lapis but she had not eaten anything yesterday and had skipped dinner the day before. Maybe she should have mentioned that when they drove past the donut shop, because Peridot was insatiably hungry, and three tacos only slightly subsidized the hunger.

After eating the last taco she had taken, she took a small break from her games and started watching the swimming competition.

"Why exactly did we wake up so early?!" a high-pitched, whiny voice complained.

Peridot turned her head and saw a tall, lanky man with poofy, red hair and a pair of gauges in his ears sitting next to a much, much shorter woman with bright, blonde hair, "We needed to be here anyway because YOU need to study for next Thursday's quiz."

"I got that part. I'm wondering why we're HERE specifically," he emphasized.

"Well, Lapis is swimming in an hour and we keep meaning to watch her swim," she explained.

The man's next words became a bit lewder, "Do you think there'll be any bikinis here?"

The girl punched him in the shoulder, "It's actual swimming, Lars. They'll be wearing one pieces."

Peridot scooted closer to the couple, leaving some distance between them, "Excuse me," she stopped when two pairs of eyes focused on her, "Um. You guys know Lapis?"

The man who Peridot assumed was called Lars looked back to the swimming competition, "Yeah, she's a friend of Sadie's."

Sadie leaned forward to look at Peridot, "He's her friend through me by proxy. How do you know her?"

"I'm her... girlfriend," she answered.

Lars and Sadie focused their attention on her again, "Wait. You're Peridot right?" Sadie asked.

She nodded.

"Man we were starting to wonder if Lapis had made you up!" Lars laughed in his seat.

Sadie moved over between Lars and Peridot, "Ignore him, he can be a real asshole sometimes," she offered her hand to her, "My names Sadie, it's good to meet you."

Peridot awkwardly gripped the shorter woman's hand and shook it, "Uh same here."

"Hey, isn't that Lapis down there?" Lars pointed down to a group of women standing in a line.

Peridot focused on her blue-haired girlfriend, silently wishing her luck in her competition. She occasionally shifted focus to the splashes the other competitors made.

Finally, Lapis' name was called up by the drab announcer's voice. Lapis climbed to the second diving above the water, and as the announcer read out the dive she was attempting, she found Peridot in the crowd and gave her a small wink. In return, Peridot raised her thumb just as she was about to start her 'straight inward dive.'

Lapis walked to the edge of the diving board, and turned her back to the pool. She bounced on the board a few times to get her bearings before she jumped. As she was in the air, she turned her body headfirst so that she faced the water, trying desperately to not bend any of her limbs until she hit the water.

She didn't hear any applause. They were all masked by the depths of the pool. She touched the concrete and jettisoned herself to the surface where she heard a familiar voice go, "WOOOOOOH! GO LAPIS!"

As Lapis was climbing out of the water, she watched Peridot awkwardly sit back down with a few spectators awkwardly staring at her.

* * *

An hour later after the swim competition adjourned and Lapis got out of her swimsuit and into her normal clothes, she thought she was going to enjoy eating somewhere for lunch with Peridot, and possibly have Sadie and Lars join them so she can finally socialize.

But Murphy's Law dictates that anything that can go wrong, will go wrong. And as Peridot walked down the bleachers, Murphy's Law began to take place. Somehow she slipped on the bleacher and lost her balance, but she didn't fall on her face, for once landing on her feet.

It seemed like all was well until she slipped on another puddle and fell into the pool. Luckily, Murphy's Law was not a heartless monster, as her Vita was still on the bleachers. Not so lucky, was Peridot was in the water thrashing about.

Lapis who observed the whole altercation completely deadpan, sighed deeply before she walked to her girlfriend and offered her hand, "C'mon, you klutz."

Peridot took her hand, bearing a face of shame, but also smiling a bit from how crazy what just happened. She helped Peridot get onto the edge and pulled her out of the water, "Jeez, I am freaking wet."

"OH MY GOD! SHE LOST HER LEG!" Lapis and Peridot jumped a bit from Lars' screaming. They finally noticed that Peridot indeed lost a leg from half of her pants not forming around a leg shape. They looked over the edge and saw the prosthetic and her shoe standing straight up, at the bottom of the pool.

After someone fished the leg out of the pool and Peridot was given a towel to dry off in, she looked to her blue haired girlfriend, "So uh. What do you wanna do now?" Peridot asked.

They exchanged glances for a few seconds and got to work putting everything in Lapis' duffel bag, "I can't believe I'm gonna bridal carry you all the way to my car," she said while she put the duffel bag over her shoulder and lifted Peridot in her arms.

In return, Peridot gave her a small kiss on the cheek, "My hero."

"Alright. You made this worth it,"

"Now let's get lunch, I'm pretty starved,"

"You know, most people would prioritize their limbs over lunch, but you just flow against the river,"

"And that's why you love me,"

* * *

 **A/N It was nice writing the banter between them. I kinda base their banter on me and my friend's so that was fun. Lars and Sadie are here, as well as Pearl. Pearl will have a little side plot of her own, but we'll get there when we get there.**

 **Two announcements. First, this series is taking a small break. I need to finish Red Flowers Bloom, it's been on hiatus since October and I just need to get it done or it will never get done.**

 **Also I have a fun little competition for my readers. There was a line Peridot said in this story that was a reference to two things. I'm challenging you all to:**

 **1) Correctly identify the line**

 **2) Tell me where this line is from**

 **3) and this is the hardest but can also be the easiest, Tell me who made the line a joke in their own projects**

 **The winner will be rewarded with a One Shot that I will write for them, and the winner can choose what it will be about, with characters and any pairing.**

 **Good luck my friends. Happy hunting.**

 **Also this will automatically end by the next update. Meaning you all have plenty of time.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Middle School - Eighth Grade**

* * *

It was the end of her first week in Texas. Compared to the last few times she moved, it wasn't that bad. There were a few decent people and the teachers weren't enforcers for school conduct. She was glad at least she had one friend to talk to.

Or really a friend to listen to.

She was amazed that Peridot wasn't getting tired of her, and even though she regretted saying this inside her head, she was impressed that she wasn't annoyed with her. To some degree, she liked having her around. Even though she talked Lapis' ear off, whenever she started talking, Peridot would stay completely silent and listen to every word. It was kind of cute.

They were in their last period for the day, and tensions were high for that droning bell to go off. Their teacher was actually focused on making them learn some useless bullcrap, but even he was starting to sweat for the bell to ring.

While Lapis was focused on the clock, she was half-paying attention to Peridot's quiet ramblings, "So I know this is sorta springing this on you but would you want to have a sleepover at my place?"

"Yeah, sure," Lapis answered without listening to the question Peridot asked. After after a few moments did she finally realize what she said, "Wait, what?"

But Peridot's excitement had kicked into high gear, "Awesome, I have a bunch of games that I want to show you and we can have a pizza party!" she whispered excitedly while the teacher glared in their direction.

Lapis was, in a way, kind of excited to hang out with her new friend, but she was concerned if her mother would say yes. But then again, she never had been invited to a sleepover, so maybe she would be able to agree.

When the bell finally rang, Lapis could barely grab onto her bookbag before Peridot dragged her by her arm out of the school. For once she was the first one out of class and for a brief moment they were the only ones in the hallway before the maelstrom of students flooded the halls and into the light of the world.

* * *

 **College - Freshman Year Second Semester**

* * *

The cashier at the local Wendy's thought he had seen it all, but when a soaken, legless girl came into his store, he had to do a double take before asking, "What'll you have?"

Lapis put the wet girl down next to the counter to balance on, "Wanna split a No. 4?"

Peridot adjusted herself and pushed her glasses, "Nah, a spicy asiago."

"Want your own or do you wanna split a drink?"

"Ew, no splitting. Separate. Do you wanna to pay half of it?" she pulled out a rather damp, clump of four dollar bills

"Sharing is caring," Lapis grabbed the bills and pulled out a few dollars of her own with some change, "Spicy asiago with two drinks and fries."

The two girls, after Peridot hopped over to a soda machine where she created an ungodly lime-flavored cola drink and sat by a window, with a family across from her. The kids gawked at the legless, pants sleeve until their dad snapped his fingers to not stare.

"So is that leg of yours totaled or something?" Lapis asked

"No, it's just that when it gets wet like that, it takes a while for it dry off so that it's safe for me to put on and that could take hours," Peridot explained, "The joys of being an amputee," she muttered before sipping her concoction.

Lapis laughed, "Hey, I'm willing to bridal carry across this whole town."

"And I'll carry a sign that says, had to sell my leg to get her a ring!" Peridot giggled.

"Ooh! Peridot are you already proposing?" Lapis melodramatically raised her arms to her head to feign shock, "Oh look, some friends followed us here."

Peridot turned to see Lars and Sadie walking through the window. She awkwardly raised her arm slightly above the table to wave while Lapis raised her arm high to get their attention and waved it, "Yo! Over here!"

Lars stayed over by the counter to order food while Sadie sat across from Peridot, "So you guys left before they could announce the scores to your swim meet."

Lapis let out a small laugh, "Sorry, we had to take care of this first," she explained while Peridot lifted the limp leg of her pants."

"Between us, it was funny as hell when Lars screamed like a girl when you lost your leg in the water," Sadie whispered to the couple from across the table.

Peridot giggled a bit, "Yeah, it's pretty good for freaking people out," she mumbled, "So how did Lapis do?"

Lars approached the table with two full drinks, "Her team made second place and she was third in her age group," he explained.

The blue-haired girl raised her hands with v-signs, "Woot."

"Pfft, not the most enthusiastic response in the world," Sadie noted.

"Naah, it's like a competition where if you do good or do bad, it really doesn't matter. Next swim meet is when we gotta get our shit together," Lapis explained.

Lars sipped his soda and slyly asked, "And how well put together is shit?"

Lapis looked Lars dead in the eye and said, "Very, well put together."

"Please, not before we're going to eat," Peridot begged.

"Agreed," Sadie seconded, "Hey, Lars can you grab our food?"

"FIIIIINE!" he groaned before getting up again.

Peridot's eyes followed the man to the counter, "He sure is a-

"Piece of work?" Sadie interjected.

"Yeah,"

Sadie looked back to Lars struggling to balance the two platters, "He's abrasive but he grows on you," she spoke quietly.

"Weren't you guys going to study after the swim meet?" Peridot asked.

"You assume we came to the meet first?" Lars answered her question with a question while he set down their food, "We've been here for... hours. It's felt like... years. Endless years of suffering," he bemoaned.

"Eat your food," Sadie elbowed him in the shoulder as the rest of the table unwrapped their meals.

"So, Lars. How's your culinary degree going?" Lapis tried starting a conversation.

"Eh? Fine, I guess?" he muttered while he munched on his sandwich.

The shorter blonde rolled her eyes, "What he means to say is that all of his food-related courses are fine, it's just his other courses are sorta," it was clear she was finding the word that wouldn't poke a sleeping bear, "Less than impressive."

"Algebra is literally the worst thing to have ever been invented by man! And why do I need it?!" he complained.

"Look, I told you, you should have gotten that credit while you were in highschool, but no! You were like, 'I'll get it done later,' and you played your stupid games!" she rebutted.

"Are you still on that? It's been two years!"

"Yeah! And now you're paying the price for it! And furthermore,"

Peridot sat in awkward silence as she ate her half of the chicken sandwich when she felt her phone suddenly vibrate. She opened it up and read a text from Lapis saying, "In case you couldn't tell, they're totally fucking."

Peridot nearly spit her food out after reading and immediately responded with, "LOL!" and after she decided to interject into the conversation, "I kinda know what you mean. During middle school and early high school I had to help Lapis with math and science all the time."

"Junior and senior year was hell. I couldn't rely on this nerd to get me through," Lapis explained.

"No you still came to me for help! While I was in the hospitable!" Peridot exasperated, "In fact, a week after my surgery, you brought your notes and your study guide to my bed to help you!"

"Clearly my education was more important than your medical recovery," they both laughed at Lapis' joke.

"So, Peridot, what college do you go to?" Sadie asked.

The confidence and the energy in Peridot's voice faded into a series of, "Uhh," before finally completing, "I don't have a high school diploma."

Lapis saw Peridot struggling to form the words, deciding to speak for her girlfriend, "Right now she's trying to get her GED."

"Yeah. Trying. Need to reschedule my final," Peridot muttered.

The table turned to an awkward silent while the four of them finished off their food. It was Lars who finally spoke up, "So why did you drop out of high school, Peridot?"

Lapis and Peridot tensed up, and Lapis was about to speak when the blonde stopped her, "It's fine, I can answer for myself," she didn't face Lars or Sadie, opting to stare down at the table while she recited the event that changed her life, "When I was a sophomore, so like three years ago, I got in a car crash. And well, it kinda took my leg so I had to get rid of it. A bunch of surgery and rehab that took a while, and now I'm here. Fine and dandy," she stilted her smile.

If the table wasn't awkwardly quiet before, it sure was now, "Sorry, I didn't think that-

"It's fine. Don't worry about it. I mean, it's not you who's missing a leg!" the joke got a few smiles but it missed its mark.

Eventually the four decided to their separate ways, Lars and Sadie having to go to work at a donut shop and Lapis had to go to her job. They waved to each other before they drove from the parking lot and onto the highway.

Peridot sat in the shotgun of Lapis' car, staring at the city that they were passing through. She felt the damp, limp leg of her jeans, going over what was left of her leg.

"That was the first time you told anyone about your accident," Lapis spoke up, "What made you want to tell them?"

Peridot shifted back and forth from Lapis to the road ahead of them, "I don't know. I guess, I'm moving forward. Not afraid to tell someone about this."

Peridot felt her hand embraced by Lapis, "I'm proud of you, Peri."

It was the first time that Peridot told Lapis how she lost her leg.

* * *

 **A/N This Chapter was Sponsored by Wendy's! Get served by a smug anime girl!**

 **Sorry the Middle School Segment was kinda half-ass. next chapter we'll have sweet sleepover stuff :D**

 **And SHOCKING! This Steven Universe fanfic is gonna have Steven Universe! What a surprise!**


	7. Chapter 7

Peridot was tapping her foot on the carpet and fiddling with the metal of her prosthetic. Having spent two weeks in a hospitable and years in a therapist's office, she loathed the sterile, clean environments they typically held.

Four years ago she was stuck in a hospital for twelve days, and for a good month she was in a bed, feeling spasms of pain in a part of her body that wasn't there anymore. Even if twelve days didn't sound like a lot, they felt like twelve decades.

The only brightside was that she marathoned the Mario and Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story.

"Freakin' Bowser," she whispered to no one in particular, "Always sucking shit up."

She realized that she just said a curse word next to a child, and then she prayed to the god whose church she didn't go to anymore that a parent was gonna get pissed at her.

"Bowser's pretty cool, huh?" the kid next to her asked.

Peridot was not a people person. She was a kid person even less, so the desire to have a conversation with this kid was lower than her confidence, "Sure."

"I always liked Rosalina more than Bowser. She's so pretty and awesome!" he gushed to her.

She blurted out, "I've always leaned more towards Luigi," without thinking. Luigi was cool. If you disagree you're lying.

"Yeah I really like him in Smash Bros!" the kid nearly cheered for joy.

Just as Peridot was going to answer who her main was in Super Smash Bros, a man called out her name, "Peridot, I'm ready to speak with," her therapist stopped and looked down at the kid, "Steven what have I told you about speaking with my patients?" he scolded the young boy.

"Sorry, Mr. Maheswaran. I'm still waiting for Connie," the so-called "Steven" explained.

"It's fine, just don't bug my patients," he turned back to Peridot, "Anyways, are you ready to speak with me?"

Peridot nodded, shifting her weight onto her right leg first and distributed it to her left before she started walking toward Maheswaran's office.

Inside was the typical therapist office consisting of a leather couch, a finely-made wooden desk holding up the current Macbook, and standing before it was a black-leather swivel chair. It wreaked of the therapist aesthetic, and Peridot hated it when she first started coming. Nowadays she didn't mind it as much, especially since she didn't have to come every other week. She usually came once every couple of months to give an update to him so that he could take notes on her progress and pass along the medical updates to his wife, the surgeon who operated on Peridot.

"So Peridot, it seems you're livelier than usual," he would always begin their conversations with what he noticed about her, but it was always an improvement, no matter how minor it was. At first Peridot thought it was really condescending, but as she showed up more and more often to his office, she didn't mind it as much.

"You think so?" she answered with a question.

"Well, I only see you for this one moment of your life, so I can't judge everything based on what I see at the lobby," if there was anything he did appreciate about Maheswaran, is that he was the only person for a long time that was casual with her, while everyone else felt like they had to walk on eggshells when they spoke with her.

Peridot and Doug Maheswaran spent the next half-hour talking about her life. She listed off every major event that had happened, and because she was such a nerd, what games she had beaten off her backlog. Doug listened intently, taking notes on her facial expressions, the intensity of her voice, and how her body shifted on certain subjects.

"Well, we're coming up on the end of our session. Is there anything else you wish to speak about?" he asked while he went over his notes.

"Yeah," Peridot answered, "I uh. I told someone what happened."

He looked up from his notes, meeting his eyes with Peridot's, "You told someone what happened about your-

"Yeah," she interjected, "I was with Lapis and two of her friends at a Wendy's, and her friend asked me about this," she tapped the muffled metal under her jeans.

"Well. To my knowledge this is," he started frantically looking through his notes until he reached the begining, "The first time that you've told someone."

"Yeah. There, never was a point since everyone already knew what had happened to me," she explained.

Maheswaran jotted down a few things in his notes while he asked, "So why do you think it took so long for you to tell anyone about your leg?"

She shifted herself to face forward, staring at the wall while she spoke her answer, "I was, or. I'm afraid that people will pity me for this. I don't need pity, I've never needed it."

* * *

Maheswaran opened the door to the lobby for Peridot, "Well, it was a pleasure speaking to you again, Peridot."

"Good talking to you," Peridot answered, "See you in a while."

"You look after yourself," he remarked while he shut the door.

Peridot walked through the lobby, pulling out her phone to contact her mother to pick her up when a young man stood in her way.

"Excuse me?"

"My name is Steven Universe, what's yours?"


	8. Chapter 8

**Middle School - Eighth Grade**

* * *

Lapis lied next to Peridot in the dark of the night. For the past hour she had done nothing but look up into the ceiling, contemplating the evening that had just transpired.

Her mother, while initially skeptical that Lapis had a friend that wanted her to spend the night, but she gave her blessings before she drove off.

The night was interesting to say the least, as Peridot's mother was a talkative woman who drove them across town to buy junk food for their night together. In all honesty, overdid the amount of food she provided for them. Chips and dip were awesome, ice cream went great with it too, and pizza was just the icing on the cake. Then she got chicken wings, potato skins, salsa, actual cake and... by the end Lapis had gotten full from just looking at the food.

Apparently Peridot used to be friends with a bigger girl who vacuumed food like nothing else, so her mother was still used to buying truckloads of food whenever she visited. In Peridot's words she was, "Destined to be a football star," as an explanation.

Lapis was never a heavy eater and chose to sample a piece of all the food, which filled her up anyway. Peridot fared only slightly better, going back for a piece of pizza and nothing else.

The rest of the evening was Peridot showing Lapis all of the video games she owned, and while Lapis had a passing interest in them, she couldn't compete with Peridot's sheer obsession. She had never seen so many games in one place before; it was almost like walking into a library, but for games.

"My relatives know I like games and whenever they visit they tend to... shower me in gifts," she rubbed the back of her head, "My parents are real strict on my grades being high so they don't let me completely sink into games."

For the next few hours, Peridot droned on and on about all the games she played, occasionally stopping to let her join in for a round of Melee, where she got her ass kicked by Peridot's Luigi. That lasted until Mrs. Olivine requested that they head to bed so they could wake up early the next morning. According to Peridot, it was always a request first and then it became an order, and if things got real bad, it became a demand.

While Lapis was staring into the ceiling above her, she felt the sleeping girl turn to her. Even in the dark, she could still make out her cute face. For the first time she saw what Peridot looked like without her glasses, and Lapis could not keep her eyes off of her.

"Psst, hey. Peridot," she whispered, gently nudging the sleeping nerd.

"Huh?" she groggily responded, "Lapis, wh-what time is it?" she rubbed her eyes while she yawned.

"Can I ask you something?"

The blonde tilted her head, "You can use the bathroom if you want, you don't-

"No, I wanted to ask if," Lapis paused to focus on Peridot's green eyes, "If I moved away, would you miss me?"

Peridot was fully woken up by these words, "What do you mean? Are you, moving already?"

"No, it's just. I've never asked anyone if they would miss me. I mean, they say I'll miss you, but," she stopped herself, "When I moved from town to town, after a while I don't miss them anymore. I liked those people but even after just a week, of living here, I don't even miss my friends in California anymore," getting these words out felt like pulling rocks out of her throat, "I'm certain in another week I'll forget their names and their faces. And I wonder if the same thing is happening to them," she focused back on Peridot, "So can you tell me, if I left town tomorrow, and even if I forget your name and your face, would you still remember me?"

Peridot didn't answer her new friend's question, choosing to hold onto her and bring her close. For what felt like hours, the two didn't say a word, the only mutual noise between them being their breathing and the beating of their hearts.

Peridot broke the silence by replying, "Only if you promise that you will never forget me."

For the first of many times thereafter, Peridot saw Lapis smile through the dark, and to her it was the most beautiful thing she ever saw, "Considering how much talking you've done, I don't think I'll ever be able to forget you."

The two burst out laughing, but quiet themselves after hearing Peridot's father shuffle and groan in his sleep from across the hall, "So, I swiped this from your games cause," Lapis presented Peridot with Pokemon Leafgreen and a Gameboy Advance, "I've never played a Pokemon game before, and I'd like to play one with you."

"I'd love to," Peridot snuggled up next to Lapis, their faces lit by the GBA's screen as they played through an adventure, filled with Lapis getting her bearings, naming her Pokemon after Naruto characters (while she already named the main character Sasuke and named the rival Naruto), and Peridot getting frustrated with the weeaboo.

Before the two went to bed, they had already beaten Misty at three in the morning, with Iruka the Staryu, Rock Lee the Mankey, and Zetsu the Bulbasaur.

* * *

 **College - Freshman Year Second Semester**

* * *

"Miss Lazuli, if you would please pay attention to my class, I would greatly appreciate it," Lapis' teacher reprimanded her, "I feel I shouldn't have to remind you all, but I will anyway, that sleeping is reserved when you are not in my class. And I would ask that Miss Lazuli internalize this lesson."

The professor went back to delivering his lecture while Sadie tapped on her shoulder, "Hey. What's up with you?"

Lapis looked down at the shorter blonde, "Just thinking back on some old memories."

* * *

A beat up sedan pulled up in the teacher parking lot, and out stepped a diminutive woman wearing a pair of sunglasses while she popped gum, "So. Where's Pearl?"

* * *

 **A/N this is the quickest I've updated a fanfiction in over two years. What the fuck happened to me? Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and I just want to clarify, I am not a Naruto fan. My friend is and that is why I know all these names. But a Staryu being named Iruka is a reference to Naruto Abridged by Little Kuriboh.**

 **Also, what the heck?! Who is this new person in a sedan?! Find out next time!**


	9. Chapter 9

After a few hours of her normal classes and studying, it was already time for swim practice. She wasn't expecting the practice to be anything more than just a good workout that would end in a rousing speech from her coach that she probably already told.

Lo and behold, her expectations were fulfilled and she soon found herself sitting on the bleachers, listening to her coach's rousing speech. Only, just now were her expectations betrayed.

"I am very proud of how far all of you come. No matter how we do in the meets, you will still have exceeded your limitations and become greater than-

The door was slammed open and a short woman stood at the entrance, "WHAT'S UP, PEARL?!"

For the first time in the year that Lapis had known Coach Pearl, she had never heard so much panic in her voice, "AMETHYST?!" the woman's arrival surprised Pearl so bad that the coach fell into the pool.

As Pearl drifted in the depths of the pool, she thought about how her previously conceived thinking that after graduating from college, she would never had seen the likes of Diana Amethyst again.

When Pearl finally surfaced, she heard Amethyst's laughter filling the echoey room, "Ok, ok. Holy shit that was pretty good, P."

One of the members of the swim team raised her hand and asked, "Are you alright, Coach?"

Pearl responded while clutching the bridge of her nose, "Far from it," she tried to pretend that Amethyst did not exist for a moment, "Alright, practice is over. Go home."

* * *

Pearl walked into her office where the short, hispanic woman was sitting in her swivel chair, "First you show up to my practice and scare me into a pool and then you have the audacity to sit in MY chair!" Pearl exasperated, but still sat down at the smaller chair on the other side of her desk, "What are you doing here, Diana?"

She popped a bubble of gum before speaking, "First of all, I know it's been like six years since we last saw each other but I thought I made it perfectly clear that if you're gonna call me anything, you're gonna call me Amethyst," she propped her feet on Pearl's desk, "And secondly, I came to visit my old roommate SLASH best friend!"

Pearl was the epitome of unimpressed, "Please take your feet off my desk," she sighed, "Do you even have a visitor badge? You could get into serious trouble if you came here without one."

"Hmm, nope. I don't think I have one of those,"

Pearl groaned, "Look you can't just barge into places that you don't belong without getting into trouble. I tried explaining this to you in college, but you never listened and that's why-

"I do got one of these things tho," Amethyst held up a plastic card pulled from her purse.

"What is this?" Pearl read the card, seeing Amethyst's face on it while describing herself as, "Wait you're a professor?!"

"Pfft, haha!" Amethyst burst out laughing, "I was looking forward to that all day! Yep, as of today I'm the new professor for Advanced Algebra!"

"ADVANCED ALGEBRA?!"

Pearl's outburst caught the attention of the few swimmers that were passing by. Lapis merely shrugged her shoulders and chose to go home, while her coach was still going nuts in her office.

"How did you become a teacher for advanced algebra?!" Pearl demanded, "I thought you were going into cosmetology or something?"

"Look Pearl, I know my hair is fucking dope but I wasn't going to a four year college so I could fix up hair. I was there to study space yo!" she explained.

"So, cosmology?"

"Bingo. It's still what my masters is,"

"M-masters?! You have a masters in cosmetology?" Pearl stammered.

"And it's my bachelor. I really wanted to like, be an astronaut or some space shit like that, but then I thought, huh. You know I actually really like math, so I got my PhD in Algebra. I'm like, a doctor," Amethyst explained.

"So for the past six years-

"I've been hitting the books while you've been hitting the pool, and I gotta say, you hitting the pool has done wonders," Amethyst checked out her old friend.

The silence that sprung up became rather awkward, as neither of them knew how to respond, "So I guess we're co-workers now," Pearl stated.

"Guess we are!" Amethyst hopped out of Pearl's chair and walked towards the door, "Oh, we should get lunch together sometime, Pearl. I'd love to have you," she winked at the swimming coach and closed the door.

Pearl stood and watched Amethyst leave through the window and asked herself, "Did she just flirt with me?"

* * *

"So let's get this one thing straight, you did a playthrough of Dark Souls," Peridot started her interrogation of Steven Universe.

"Yep, and I've only played it once," he added joyfully.

"Right. And you did it with only shields?"

"Yep. I don't really like swords all that much, but I love shields!"

"And you were able to save Solaire,"

"Yep,"

"And you were able to not kill Priscilla and be friends with her?"

"She's really pretty!"

"And let me get this straight, you killed Gwyn but you didn't light the fire or walked away?"

"I didn't think either was the best choice for humanity, so I just turned off the game," Steven explained his adventures in the world of Dark Souls.

"Either you're some Lovecraftian being that has no concept of right and wrong, only neutral, or you are literally the purest child I've ever met," Peridot gave her scientific deduction of the young man.

"Well what did you do when you um, defeated Gwyn?" Steven asked.

Peridot dramatically raised her hand to the sky and clenched it into a fist, "I let the flame burn out so that I could reign over humanity as the dark lord!" she declared.

She suddenly realized they were outside in public when a man in a yellow shirt remarked, "Yeah you need therapy."

Peridot and Steven watched the man walk away, and the young woman grew silent, "Well that was a great help to my mood."

"Hey, he's just a jerk, don't listen to him," Steven consoled her, "Hey, I have a great idea for you. You like them video games, don't cha?"

She raised an eyebrow, "If it wasn't obvious, yes I do

"Kid you realize you're asking a nineteen-year old girl to come with you. Do you realize how bad that will make someone look?" Peridot tried reasoning.

"I'm fourteen though,"

* * *

Every fiber and steel atom in Peridot's being was telling her that Steven was a lying sack of shit that wanted to score some amputated booty. She wouldn't admit that to his face because she was not a monster. But regardless, she still let the kid drag her all over town on a bus. She got a few glares from some of the other bus patrons, but Steven was busy blabbing about the city for her to notice all that much.

"You know, Steven it is a Wednesday and it's four in the afternoon. Why aren't you in school?" Peridot asked.

"My dad homeschools me," he answered, "Why aren't you in school?"

"None of your business," she snapped, before relenting, "I dropped out of highschool so I haven't been able to get into college yet."

"Why haven't you gotten into college?" Steven asked innocently.

"Haven't got my GED yet,"

"Why haven't you gotten your GED?"

"No more questions," Peridot stopped the conversation she hated having, "So where are we headed?"

As if on cue, the bus stopped and Steven led the girl off onto the sidewalk. She looked around, trying to find anything she recognized.

"Damn, this kid dragged me halfway across town. I don't know where I am, and I'm certain mother is going to kill me once she starts tracking my phone," Peridot was thinking to herself out loud while Steven stared at her.

"Um, we're in New Braunfels," he answered the question he overheard her thinking about.

"NEW BRAUNFELS?! YOU DRAGGED ME ALL THE WAY OUT HERE?! I LOVE VIDEO GAMES AS MUCH AS THE NEXT AMPUTEE," coincidentally, they were standing next to a veteran who had lost his arm and gave them the biggest "what the heck" look, "BUT I DON'T WANT TO GO TO THE NEXT TOWN TO OGLE AT THEM!"

"Then why did you follow you me here?" Steven asked, with Peridot still in tow.

"ERRGH! SHUT UP WITH THE QUESTIONS! I'VE GOT THAT MAHESWARAN TO DO THAT FOR ME!" Peridot shouted, "So, where are we going?"

Steven pointed his thumb to a store next to a pizza place and adjacent to the road. Peridot adjusted her glasses upon inspection, reading the name of the place.

"So is this place legit?"

Steven pulled out a pair of cheap aviators from his cheeseburger backpack, "Oh it's legit."

On the inside, a scruffy man in a beanie was reading a manga drawn by Amami Takatsume when the two walked into his shop, "Welcome. How may I help you?"

"The bits," Steven remarked.

* * *

An hour later, Steven and Peridot were back on the bus heading back to San Antonio, admiring each other's hauls, "That was incredible! That was the best haul I've had in years. I only spent fifty bucks and look at all of this stuff! It's incredible!" she looked up to Steven, "Where did you find that place?"

"My dad played at a show in town once and we passed it once. I went there a few times and was gonna take Connie there with me, but then you came along," Steven held up a copy of Final Fantasy VII, "Is this one any good?"

"First of all! This is not the best Final Fantasy game, it's the fourth best! Right behind VI, IX, and XII! Second of all, if this was a vain attempt at hitting on me," she pulled out her phone and opened the lock screen, "I already have a girlfriend! And I sold my leg to buy her a ring!" she pulled up the leg of her pants to show off the metal limb, "And third of all, you dumped that girl you were gonna bring for me?"

Steven pondered for a few moments, "So what you're saying is, I should have brought Connie too?"

"Is this kid a player or something?" Peridot thought to herself as the bus came to a stop.

"Anyway, this is your stop. I do hope to see you again!" Steven waved to her.

Peridot looked out the window and saw it was where their journey started, "You ride the bus a lot. You just know where everything is."

Steven nodded, "My dad uses his van to get to and from work and that's it. Whenever we go anywhere we usually take the bus," he explained, "It was nice meeting you! I hope to see you again!"

Peridot stepped off the bus and watched Steven wave to her as the bus took off. She pulled out her phone and called her mother, "Hey, Lapis. I know this will sound weird but this kid dragged me to New Braunfels for video games," she explained, "I swear to god, no! Anyway can you give me a ride?"

The blonde hung up her phone and looked down at the stack of games she held in her arms and back at the bus driving away, "Steven Universe. First time I will say this about any kid but, I hope to see him again."

* * *

 **A/N References made! The guy who insulted Peridot in the yellow shirt? That was supposed to be a reference to Eddy from Ed, Edd N Eddy.**

 **The video game store they went to was called the D-Pad and if any of my readers live near New Braunfels should go there as it's one of the best places I've been to for video games.**

 **The manga artist Amami Takatsume is the person who draws for Senran Kagura. This was intended to be a reference to Metal Gear Rising Revengeance when Raiden and Wolf go to the airfield where the gatekeeper is reading that manga with the animu girls.**

 **I would say what games that Peridot and Steven got, but I'm not sure what games Peridot would so... whatever PS2 games you're looking for getting and only eight of them, Peridot got them. Steven just got Final Fantasy VII.**

 **Third update in one month. I am on a roll. I hope you guys are enjoying the story. And there will be a reason Amethyt's name is not Amethyst Quartz. It'll be explained later with... the Famethyst.**

 **See ya'll later.**


	10. Chapter 10

**High School Freshman Year Second Semester**

* * *

Normal lunch as usual, with the food holding the world record for mediocrity and the many students cursing the name of Michelle Obama. Lapis Lazuli stared down at the pile of food on her gray platter while her friends chattered away.

"Hey, Lapis! Where's Peri?" one of her friends asked.

The blue-haired girl looked up to across the table, "I have no idea. She said she had a 'surprise' for me but I have no idea what that could mean."

"Yeah! With Peridot that could literally mean anything!" another friend from her group agreed.

If today had gone how she thought it always would, Lapis would have munched on the mediocre food, but today, nor Peridot, had that in mind.

The intercom in the cafeteria suddenly came to life, and the sounds of an amplifier starting up with a piano starting to play.

"Oh no. Please don't tell me," Lapis blurted out.

" _The Darkside's coming out nothing is real. She'll never know just how I feel_ ," on que, Peridot's singing filled the entire cafeteria. The sound quality wasn't great, Peridot didn't have the greatest singing voice, but the passion of her voice and of her piano playing more than made up for it.

" _From out of the shadows she walks like a dream. Make me feel crazy make me feel so mean! Ain't nothing gonna save you from the love that's blind, slip into the dark side and cross that line_!" suddenly more instruments began playing from Peridot's piano program, while the girl stepped up from her electronic instrument to a mike stand. With a nod to a janitor she paid off, the curtains to the stage in the cafeteria opened, " _On the darkside! Oh yeaah! On the darksiiide! Oh yeaaah!_ "

When the song's rhythm changed, Peridot started dancing to the rhythm, now with an audience of the entire student body. Eventually the clapping in the song got everyone to start clapping along too. Just as Peridot started singing, she rapidly tapped her feet on the floor to the drum, " _The Darkside's coming out nothing is real. She'll never know just how I feel! From out of the shadows she walks like a dream. Make me feel crazy make me feel so mean! Ain't nothing gonna save you from the love that's blind, slip into the dark side and cross that line!_ " just before Peridot had to sing more lines, she ran for a saxophone and slipped the strap on before running back to the mic, " _On the darkside! Oh yeaah! On the darksiiide! Oh yeaaah!_ "

Now even more skillfully, Peridot played a long, sick, and awesome sax solo that was even louder than the song playing through her piano.

The whole time, she never stopped looking at Lapis. She knew where Lapis was sitting and kept her eyes on her the whole time. If it weren't for the fact it would have gotten her suspended with her, she would have invited her on stage to dance.

" _Ain't nothing gonna save you from the love that's blind, slip into the dark side and cross that line! On the darkside! Oh yeaah! On the darksiiide! Oh yeaaah!_ "

The song ended with Peridot bowing to her fellow classmates who bellowed in cheers. She rubbed the back of her head while she blushed from the praise. She looked through the crowd for Lapis, unable to find her amongst the sea of faces. Not helping matters was the intercom going, "Would Peridot Olivine please report to the principal's office!"

With no choice, Peridot grabbed her saxophone, her keyboard, bowed to the audience and walked towards the fate of her academic career. While the crowd cheered for her name, she couldn't stop searching for Lapis.

"Well, time to face the music," Peridot muttered to herself, raising her fist while she left the cafeteria.

* * *

While she was walking to her car, she thought of the conversation with the principal that mainly was him complaining and raising hell at her for disrupting lunch. Ultimately, after an hour long throwdown, the old man suspended her for a week and gave her another week of detention. She was expecting worse, and thought that the only reason the old bastard didn't expel her was that he liked the song she sung.

Peridot opened the backseat to her shitty, white car and placed her instruments inside, "Hey."

The blonde hit her head on the car roof when she heard her voice, "Oh, hey," she replied while she rubbed the back of her head, "So, uh. How are you?"

Lapis raised an eyebrow, "How am I? How am I?" she leaned against Peridot's car, "Well, the girl that I've been best friends with for two and a half years goes on stage, sings her heart out, and it's clearly to me about how she loves me and I don't know how to react to that!" Lapis poured her heart out, "I've been alright."

"You figured out what that song was about pretty quick, huh?"

"You didn't hide it to me very well," she admitted.

For a few moments, the two of them said nothing as they watched the Texas Sun set into the horizon, "So. Did you like the song?"

Lapis turned to her best friend, put her arms around her and held her tight, "I loved it. I loved it almost as much as I loved you."

Peridot hugged Lapis back, pulling her in as much as she possibly could, "I've known you for two years, and I think I've loved you for a year."

"Pfft, that's nothing. I've started loving since we played Pokemon in bed for the first time,"

Peridot looked into Lapis face and started piecing things together, "So you've loved me since eighth grade?"

"Yep. Congratulations, Peridot, you turned me gay," they shared a laugh for a little while, "So I gotta ask. What now?"

Peridot reached for her keys and held them up, "I've got the perfect place in mind."

* * *

In a corner of some Wataburger, Peridot Olivine and Lapis Lazuli sat across from each other, eating chicken strips.

They said nothing to each other, basking in their own company as old country music played, "The Swim Finals are coming up soon," Lapis suddenly brought up, "Will you be there?"

Peridot looked up and nodded, "Nothing will stop me from watching you swim!"

* * *

 **College Freshman Year Second Semester**

* * *

Peridot looked down at her prosthetic leg, randomly tapped the metal and thought, "I'm hungry for some chicken tenders."

* * *

 **A/N A** **little story as to how Peridot and Lapis got into a relationship.** **This story is meant to be non-linear so just sit back and enjoy yourselves you crazy kids :D, it'll be like Pulp Fiction, except without the violence and the foot fetishism.**


	11. Chapter 11

**College Freshman Year Second Semester**

* * *

"So what's happening with your coach?" Sadie asked her blue-haired friend.

Her voice bounced off the echoey walls of the study-room they checked out. Lapis looked away from her book to answer, "So, a week ago we're having practice. You know it's about to end, Coach is giving us those pep talks she always does. Then out of nowhere this woman bursts through the door like she's known Coach all of her life, and poor coach, she fell in the water like this lady was a monster."

"Is she a monster for Aragonite?"

"Maybe? I've never seen her before. I think her name was Diana Amethyst?" Lapis guessed what she overheard her coach yelled.

"This isn't the same Diana Amethyst that's the new Advanced Algebra teacher, right?"

"You sure? This lady did not look like she was a math teacher,"

Sadie shrugged, "Hey, stranger things have happened," she reached for her phone and started texting out loud, "Where, the, heck, are, you, we've, been, waiting, for, the, food, for, twenty, minutes."

A very dirty joke came to Lapis' mind, "Do you do that when you're sexting him?"

Sadie reached for the nearest pencil and threw it at the blue-haired girl, "You pervert!"

Lapis dodged the pencil and proceeded to guffaw at her, "I'm sorry, I couldn't resist!"

Lars walked into the study room, a bag of potato chips in one hand, and an eyebrow raised on his face, "Fucking book store was packed and I had to wait fifteen minutes to get these lousy snacks."

Though Lapis was going to criticize him for his life choices, it did not stop her from opening the bag of chips and inhaling them, "Why didn't you go to the general store a mile down the road? It's cheaper and way faster than the book store."

Lars shrugged, "You're talking to a guy who doesn't own a car."

"He relies on me to get him everywhere," Sadie explained.

"It's why we've had the same job since we were sophomores in high school," Lars finished while he popped open a cold Red Bull with the girls.

The conversation weaved in and out of studying to the random small talk that most teens do, to the discussion of anime, though it was mostly between Sadie and Lapis.

Sadie and Lapis met last semester, as they were assigned together as roommates. They managed to hit it off rather well when Sadie brought her collection of anime and horror DVDs. Ever since then, many nights were spent discussing the garbage animes they loved dearly. And Yaoi Naruto pairings, which Lapis drew fanart of and Sadie wrote some hardcore, trash fanfics. If Lapis hadn't fallen for Peridot and Sadie sort of but not really as it's kind of hard to tell but Lapis could totally see it while Peridot could see it if she adjusted her glasses, kinda but probably has feelings for the walking stick known as Lars.

"Oh god, did you finally update your fic?" Lapis asked.

"Haha, yeah. Kinda. I was stumped on how to write it, so I asked for some help and the answer was-

"Make it gay," they said in unison.

"That is always the answer, and should be the ending statement for every debate," Lapis declared while sipping her drink.

"Damn skippy," Sadie agreed, raising her drink to their declaration.

Lars sulked, pulling out his phone so that he can subtweet his friends. Lars was always one to subtweet people.

"So how has Peridot been? It's been like a week since we saw her at Wendy's," Sadie started that conversation.

"She's been alright. I haven't talked to her in a few days," Lapis reached for her phone to check, "She hasn't messaged me either."

Sadie and even Lars looked toward Lapis, "Are you guys mad at each other or something?" Lars asked.

"No. We sometimes don't talk to each other for a little while," Lapis mentioned, "If you want to know the awful truth, I feel pretty good when we take breaks from seeing each other."

"This is, the first I'm hearing of this," Sadie stated, "You guys have been dating for five years right?"

"It's more accurate to say we've been dating for two of them," she looked down at a Staryu charm, hanging on a rope from her phone, "After she got in that crash, she just, shut down."

The silence from touchy subjects like these came upon the group. Lars and Sadie weren't sure if they should let Lapis let the silence continue or they should ask more about her.

It inevitably fell on Lars to break the silence, "I have been thinking. With the injury Peridot has she should have been able to start school in only a month or two. Why didn't she finish high school?"

Lapis finally turned away from her friends to face a wall, "That's the million dollar question," she replied, thinking about those many moons where she worried about her into the morning, "When I said she she shut down, she emotionally and physically shut down. She would hardly eat, she never left her room, and she wouldn't wear her prosthetic. I was the only person she would communicate with.

"Which like that's great and all but, for five years it felt like I wasn't dating her. It felt like I was just emotional support and nothing else. We've technically been dating for five years, but we didn't REALLY start dating until two years ago, and only six months of that time I would actually call being in a relationship.

"And don't get me wrong, I love Peridot! Like, every time I see her it makes me happy, and I've been in love with her since we were in junior high! It made me the happiest otaku in the world when she asked if we could date, but half a decade later, fuck! We haven't gone on a date! We just go to fast food and watch shitty Netflix shows! Like we are the bare minimum of dating. We haven't even had sex yet! We do that cuddly shit, and yeah we've showered together, wait hold up," Lapis reached for a Red Bull, popped it open, pulled out a flask from her backpack, poured in the Red Bull and chugged it, "And Jesus Christ, it's taken an entire year for her to come out of that cave of hers just to watch my fucking," she chugged more of the vodka Red Bull, "My fucking, weeaboo ass to dive. Like fuck!"

The two grew more concerned as she chugged the entire alcoholic concoction and then chugged her flask, "I fucking, give everything to her. Cause I love her and I want to marry her one day and motorboat those sugartits all damn day! But I don't get anything back. And like, fuck. What happened to that girl who got suspended just cause she wanted to sing a song about how much she loved me? That girl who wasn't afraid to nerd out about video games to me. I know all the Pokeymans cuz of her! And she fucking plays that Overwatch game, but I don't fucking know who she plays! I don't know anything 'cept I want that girl in the flying suit to fuck me like there's no tomorrow!"

Lapis looked through the flask's opening, and besides the drop of vodka that fell on her forehead, it was empty, "I love that blonde bitch. I wouldn't have stuck with her since high school if I didn't love her. But fucking, I don't fucking know anymore," she collapsed on the table.

Lars and Sadie looked at each other, not sure what to do with the drunk girl besides drag her out of the study room and back to her and Sadie's dorm, "After one drink and you're already drunk. What kind of lightweight are you?" he asked while he threw all of Lapis' stuff into her bag.

"Hey, I maybe a lightweight but that was very strong vodka," she mumbled through her words, "I'm sorry."

"You owe us some favors for this, just letting you know," Sadie notified her roommate as they got her on her feet.

It took a bit of sneaking around so the study room manager didn't notice a drunk girl walking through. Eventually Lars parted with them when they approached the woman's dorm. Lapis and Sadie made it back to their dorm, and while she left Lapis to do some more studying with Lars, Lapis wandered into the shower, turning the water to as cold as it could be so it would wake her out of daze. But as her mind began to clear, more thoughts on her girlfriend poured in.

"I love you. I love you so much," her tears started mixing with the water, "But I can't keep this up. I can't," she hit the wall of her shower and looked up at the water, "Do you love me yet? Fucking prove it, Peridot."

* * *

 **A/N There's more to the name of this fic being called Fragments. Peridot and Lapis are fragmented in more ways than one.**

 **The next chapter should be out soon. I have a really cool idea for it and I hope you all enjoy it.**

 **And friendly reminder that Pearl's last name is Aragonite. The kind of rock that Pearl is is Aragonite, like how the kind of rock Peridot is is Olivine. Noticing a theme?**


	12. Chapter 12

**Highschool - Freshman Year Second Semester**

* * *

Peridot bowed her head, "Dear god. It's me. I know we haven't talked in awhile. I haven't gone to church in six years, and I'm not even sure if I still believe in you," the blonde squeezed the rubber of her steering wheel, "It's rude of me to ask when I've said those things, but can I ask for a favor or two?"

* * *

 **Two weeks Prior**

* * *

Peridot held the door open for her new girlfriend, "So what do you want to do now? I've got a new game I want to play. You might be into it."

Lapis sipped soda out of her straw, "That depends," she walked closer to Peridot, her height starting to outgrow the blonde's, "Are your parents going to be home?"

Peridot looked up to the sky for answers, "Yeah. She's usually home by this hour."

As they got into Peridot's car, Lapis suggested, "You know my mom isn't home for a few days. We could hang out at my house," she offered while clicking her seatbelt in.

Peridot had thoughts racing through her head, unsure how to comprehend how fast thing were moving, "I mean. I can't go to school for a two weeks so, not like staying at your place is gonna hurt," she looked to Lapis and a wave of confidence rushed through her, "You know what? Why not!" she turned the ignition and sped out of the parking lot.

* * *

"I'm gonna be gone for a while. I'm gonna leave a lot of people behind, but especially Lapis," she had been praying in her head, but she spoke her love's name out loud. More memories flowed through her head and she had to stop the flow to get her thoughts through, "I want you to look over her, and make sure she's ok."

* * *

It wasn't very common for Peridot to visit Lapis' place as her mother preferred that they were over at the Olivine residence so she could keep an eye on the, and to be brutally honest, Lapis' house wasn't very clean most of the time and it was much smaller than Peridot's.

The two walked through the empty living room/foyer/dining room to a small hallway with two doors on each end, the left leading to Ms. Lazuli's room, and the right going into Lapis'. When Peridot first visited her home, it was a terrifying view into the world of otaku with anime posters and mini-figurines lain about everywhere. Never had Peridot seen so much weebness in one place.

The room and the house in a whole was much different without Ms. Lazuli, it was eerily quiet and empty. With no one else, Lapis and Peridot could hear each other's heartbeats reverberate off the walls.

"So. What do you want to do?" Peridot asked, not sure what to do in her girlfriend's room, "Do you wanna watch a movie?"

Lapis laid down in her bed, looking straight into the ceiling, "Can I be real with you?"

Peridot paused, unable to find a proper answer for her, "I mean. Today has been nothing but being real, so I don't know why not?"

The blue-haired girl looked down at her, "This is gonna be heavy but," she closed her reyes and let out a short breath of air, "Peri. How much do I mean to you?"

* * *

Peridot's heart skipped a beat, "She means everything to me. I don't know how I could have gone these past two years without her," drops of tears started falling on her jeans, "I love her so much!"

* * *

"Wow. I. I guess that's why you sang to me on stage," even though she started their "real" conversation, Lapis was still surprised by Peridot's answer.

"I guess I poured my heart out to you twice today," Peridot laughed, rubbing the back of her head before sitting on Lapis' bed, "What about me? What do I mean to you?"

Lapis pulled herself up and moved next to the blonde, "I suppose it's my turn to pour my heart out," she sighed, "You have no idea, how grateful I am that I met you. I'm pretty sure I'd be in the ground if I didn't have you."

Peridot couldn't say a word, as she was struck in a terror one feels for a loved one sitting on an edge of a cliff, only able to spit out, "Oh."

Lapis immediately started talking when she saw the shift in Peridot's mood, "Sorry. I don't mean for things to be heavy. I haven't had those feelings since I moved here," she put her arm around, "Don't worry. I'll be fine."

* * *

At this point, Peridot was bawling, "So please, while I'm gone. I want you to give her a great life. She deserves it. Way more than me. Please."

* * *

"Have you had your first kiss?" Lapis asked suddenly.

"No. How about you?" Peridot whispered, her heart rate increasing more by every second she spent looking at Lapis.

"Yeah. Kissed a hick in Kansas City just so I could see what it was like," Lapis smiled, "That was the first sign that I was gay."

They shared a short laugh before Lapis admitted, "I've kissed a few girls and boys. But I never felt anything."

Peridot swallowed all of the timidness inside of her and asked, "Do you think you would feel something with me?"

Lapis moved closer to Peridot, pushing some of her girlfriend's hair back, "Let's find out."

Peridot could feel her heart wanting to burst out of her chest, and even though every corner of her body was as tense as a horror film, she somehow relaxed her lips as they moved their faces closer together.

Peridot tilted her head, and closed her eyes as she felt Lapis' lips pressing against her own. Her soft lips moved more aggressively than her, meshing Peridot's lips between her own. Peridot's eyes nearly shot out of her head when she felt Lapis' tongue brush her's, but closed her eyes, and focused everything on Lapid Lazuli.

Time didn't exist. The world around them could have disappeared, but all that matter to them was each other. They didn't move faster or slower, keeping the same pace until they broke the kiss off. They were finally able to catch their breaths as they pressed their heads together, and when they finally opened their eyes, Peridot asked, "Did you feel anything?"

"I felt," she paused to bring her arms around Peridot and pull her close, "Like I love you."

* * *

The tears had finally stopped. Peridot braced herself as she ended her prayer, "Please, God. Give her the life she deserves. Give her someone she can love, as much as I loved her. I'll see you soon. Amen."

Peridot Olivine clutched the wheel of her car, looked up and spoke as she braced herself, "I'll miss you, Lapis."

Bang.

* * *

 **A/N How fitting I released this on a Sunday. I figure using context clues, you should figure out when we're switching time periods, but if it's too confusing, let me know and I'll edit them in. Won't look as nice, but whatevs.**

 **Hope ya'll enjoyed this. Next chapter will be a bit sweeter.**


	13. Chapter 13

**College Freshman Year - Second Semester**

* * *

Peridot was one of those people that would always wear a jacket no matter the weather nor the time of year. It didn't matter if it was the middle of Texas Spring, she would wear a jacket, zip it up and sit in a corner. Maybe she would unzip it enough so people could see the design on her t-shirt, which more often than not was an alien shirt. Sometimes it was a video game themed shirt, and today it was. Only it was for one of those fanservice weeb games that only Peridot enjoyed. So in order to preserve the innocent of the youth from the clutches of anime, Peridot zipped her jacket up and tight as she and Steven sat on the bus, driving through town.

"So where are we stopping again? I still can't believe I'm letting a twelve-year old drag me across this town," Peridot thought out loud.

"I thought I told you I'm fourteen," Steven Universe attempted to kindly correct his new friend with a big smile on his face.

"And I lost my leg in the Gulf War," Peridot sarcastically responded.

Steven, on the other hand, took her dead seriously "You did?! I did not know that you're a war veteran!?"

Peridot could only blink at the kid that seemed so intelligent, but was so gullible at the same time, "No I didn't lose my leg in the war, and I'm not a veteran. I'm only like 18."

"I thought you were much older," Steven blurted out.

Peridot wasn't sure if she should take that as an insult or just chalk it up as youthful innocence. If it were anyone else, she would have told them off, but she held back with Steven. But then she started wondering, if he was fourteen, did that mean he really did know what he was saying? For a solid minute, these thoughts clouded her mind without any end in sight.

"Soo, I gotta ask. If you were in college, what would you be studying?" Steven randomly asked.

"What would I be studying? That's simple. I would be studying to become an astrophysicist,"

"A what what?"

"An astrophysicist. Someone who studies the universe. Don't they teach you this in highschool?"

"I don't go to highschool. My dad homeschools me,"

"Lucky ba-

Steven looked up at her waiting for the rest of the sentence. Peridot once again racked her brain if it was morally ok to use swears around him.

"Looks like we're here!" Steven jumped off the seat to their bus and ran off with Peridot following behind. She walked after the young man, taking some envy that he was as tall as she was. The people in Peridot's family were naturally short, but Peridot was shorter than the average Olivine, and she blamed the loss of her leg on this, despite the fact her doctors told her that it would have no effect for someone her age.

Peridot needed a reason to be angry at her height, so she took any reason given to her.

Steven walked backwards and watched her prosthetic leg walk, "Is it hard to walk with that?"

"No. I mean, yes, but you get used to it," she vaguely answered.

"How much of your leg is gone?"

She never liked it when people asked these questions, as it brought attention to herself, and very rarely did Peridot ever desire attention from other people. But she stopped walking to point to the part of her jeans where the last bit of her thigh was organic.

"Oh wow! How'd that happen?" Steven asked the only question Peridot would never give.

"And that was our interview with Miss Olivine!" she jested to him, "I'd rather not talk about that. Anything else is fine, I guess."

"Alright. Do you have a cool hidden weapon in your leg?"

"Actually, I asked the manufacturer if they could put a hidden compartment for a knife or soda cans but they told me it would mess up the balance," at the mention of soda, Peridot wiped the sweat off her forehead, "Man it's hot out today."

"Maybe that's because you're wearing a jacket," Seven pointed out the obvious, and before Peridot could rebuttal his right yet unneeded truth, he proclaimed, "WE'RE HERE!"

She looked to where Steven was pointing and was unimpressed, "We're headed here? This lame donut shop?!"

To be fair to Peridot, the donut shop wasn't very impressive, as it looked as generic as every other damned donut domain, but Steven seemed adamant that it was worth checking out and it was still considered early in the morning, so Peridot relented and followed Steven into the shop.

She was nearly sure that the place was abandoned when they walked in. It felt creepy to Peridot, walking into a store with evidence of life and yet none at all, like if the world were prepared only for her, but she would never find a soul living in it.

Well that wasn't the case as the employee door opened, "SORRY! Welcome to-

In all of Steven Universe's power, he could have not foreseen a more awkward moment, and even if he could, there would be no way to prevent it.

"Oh uh, hi. You're Sally, right?" after at least a week without seeing a person, it was difficult for Peridot to remember someone's name, and to her credit she did get the first letter and general sound of the name right, but she still screwed up the name, equipping the Awkwardness with a +12 Uncomfortable Gauntlets.

Thankfully, Sadie was merciful and didn't harp on Peridot's forgetfulness, "It's Sadie," but it still contributed to the general awkwardness.

"Sorry, it's uh, good to see you again," Peridot muttered.

And though Steven unknowingly started the most awkward situation he had ever witnessed, he still saved the two women from awkward-radiation, "Sadie, I found out a few days ago that my friend here has never had a Cookie Cat."

"NOOOO!" the screams of a dying man came from the back-room, as a tall, lanky man came out with a frosted box in his hands.

"What's wrong, Lars?" Steven asked.

"You know these guys?" Peridot questioned him.

"Yeah, this is the closest donut shop to my home. And they're the only people who still have Cookie Cat!"

Lars dropped the box on the counter, taking deep breaths to recover while he opened the box of Cookie Cats, "I'm convinced he's the only person who ever eats these things. Oh and hi, Peridot."

"Ohhh! He's a frozen treat with an all new taste! Cause he came to this planet from outer space!" Steven began singing when he saw the endless amount of Cookie Cats in the box, "A refugee in an interstellar war!"

Lars and Peridot met through eye contact and he confirmed, "Just let it happen and it will be over sooner."

"But now he's at your local grocery store! Cookie Cat he's a friend for your tummy!" never noticing Lars' comments, Steven continued.

"Cookie Cat, he's super duper yummy," Sadie quietly joined Steven's singing, with Lars joining for the next verse, "Cookie cat, he left his family behind! Cookie cat!"

The blonde behind the counter began clapping for their customer's performance, "Great job as always, Steven."

"He does this every time he gets of these fu-" a mean look from Sadie was enough to change his choice of words, "Excellent products carried by our store."

"And speaking of excellent products, I'll take two of those freshly, shipped Cookie Cats!" Steven laid down the cash on the counter.

"Are you sure you don't want any of those Lion Lickers?" Sadie asked, pointing to a cooler.

"No one likes Lion Lickers! They don't even look like lions!" Steven pointed to one licker where its eyes were where its mouth was.

Peridot had taken one of the Cookie Cats and started munching into the ice cream sandwich, "I like it. It's crunchy, but creamy on the inside."

"Aw yeah! Cookie Cat!" Steven celebrated his new friend enjoying his favorite snack.

As Peridot ate the cat-themed ice cream sandwich, she started a conversation with her new-ish acquaintances, "So how's Lapis? I haven't heard from her in a few days."

"You have a phone right? Can't you text her?" Lars answered her question with a question.

"I do, but she hasn't answered me. I wanted to hang out with her today but nothing," she explained.

Sadie was going to explain the situation but Lars asked one obvious question, "Ok before anything else. What the hell are you doing with Steven?"

"That's one for the swear jar!" Steven called out from across the store, "She was actually on her way to this Blue Girl's dorm, and I met her on the bus. She told me she's never had Cookie Cat so I got her to stop by here."

The three teens looked at Steven with a look of concern, "How do you get everywhere, Steven? Like it seems whenever you want to go somewhere, you take the bus," Peridot asked.

"There was one time I went to Omaha, Nebraska on a bus. My dad was, not happy about that. He banned TV for a thousand years," Steven explained, "What were you saying about the Blue Girl?"

"How do you know she has blue hair?" Peridot inquired.

"I didn't. You said her name was Lapis, so since Lapis Lazuli is a blue gem, she'd be blue,"

"He's got a point," Sadie admitted, "Um. You might want to check up on her. She's been," Sadie looked to Lars for the appropriate words.

"She's been hitting the bottle," Lars remarked.

"Wh-what?" she stammered, "I didn't know that she drank."

"You might want to go see her. She kinda needs you right now," Sadie advised Peridot.

A lot of new information was being absorbed into Peridot. She never thought that Lapis would drink, but she racked her brain for times Lapis told her about getting a beer. And then she racked her brain for any reason why she would drink, as Lapis didn't seem like the kind of girl to drink, especially one who's on a swim team.

She was brought out of her trance by Lars' snapping fingers, "Welcome back to planet earth. Are you gonna get anything else or are you gonna go see Lapis?"

Peridot turned to her host, "Steven, thanks for the Cookie Cat it was delicious!" she formally thanked him as she walked out the door.

"Do you want to hang out again later?" Steven called out to her.

"Sure!" she yelled back before the glass doors close on themselves.

"Man, she is so cool!"

Lars slumped over, "Go home, Steven."

* * *

It took a few bus rides but Peridot made her way to the dorms of Lapis' college. She wandered a bit, ignoring every side glance and stare that came her way or at her leg. She walked through one of the doors into a foyer with an office on the side where a woman was dutifully signing papers.

"Are you a visitor or a new transfer?" Peridot ignored her as she focused on the elevator in front of her, "Ma'am. I need to see if you have a visitor badge."

Her shrill voice didn't stop Peridot from pushing the elevator button and entering the lift, "Ok, Sadie said that she and Lapis live on the third floor, so I'll hit this button. And the doors will close and-

"YOU WILL DIE!" Peridot would swear to this day that she saw that woman wielding a shotgun and an odachi, coming at her.

Peridot started smashing on the button in a vain attempt to make the elevator move faster.

* * *

The shutters were shut, but the beams of light that broke through its crack shined down on Lapis' body, her sweat reflecting the light off of her. She had one arm covering her eyes and her other arm hanging off the side of the bed, with a hand wrapped around a bottle of stout. She had spent the last eight hours lying in bed, only getting up to grab another bottle from her fridge, and this was her third.

Her arm pulled itself up, bringing the glass bottle up to her lips while she sipped the Irish concoction, "What am I doing?" she asked herself, "Just call her. She'll answer," she lifted herself up to reach the phone she had been sitting on for the whole day, "Son of a bitch. No power."

She heard a knock on the door and walked towards it, putting pants on as she went. She turned the doorknob and pulled the door back, "Hey, what do you-

Peridot stood in front of her, looking up into her eyes, "Hi. I guess, uh. Good morning, or good afternoon," she muttered.

"H-hey. Um, what are you doing here?"

"I. I heard you were feeling bad,"

Lapis felt her heart drop like a rock, "You could say that," she admitted.

"What would you say, then?" she pushed the matter closer to her.

Lapis let out a deep sigh and pulled the door farther out, "Make yourself comfortable. We're gonna be here for a while."

Peridot's eyes widened, "How long are we going to talk?"

"Let's just say, we're gonna start at the beginning," Lapis answered.

* * *

 **Highschool Freshman Year Second Semester**

Lapis looked around in the audience, her concern growing more and more, "Where is she?"

* * *

 **A/N Next chapter we'll finally get some insight on what happened four years ago**


	14. Chapter 14

**Not long after the turn of the** **millennium**

* * *

She watched the night sky slowly conquer the remains of the day, as the sun's rays shined beyond the mountain before it was obscured entirely by the horizon. The Atlantic ocean turned from blue to black in the matter of minutes and it left her entirely entranced. She paid complete attention to this metamorphosis while trying to ignore the bickering of her parents.

She heard too many things coming out of her parents that she should, nor should any child ever hear. Most of it blended together; her father would accuse her mother of not loving him anymore while she would yell at him for coming home with one of his female coworkers, and then it would spiral out of control from there.

She would always come out here and watched the day pass. In a few hours, the yelling would be over and she could come back inside.

"You can't take her away from me!" she was reeled back into reality by her father's words, "She is MY daughter!"

"She has my name and she came from me! You can keep this house and everything in it, but she is mine," her mother held her ground. She would hold on to Lapis close and would never let go. That's how she was.

She could hear her mother coming up the stairs, "Lapis. Pack your things with everything you can't part with. We leave in an hour," she poked her head through the door and darted back out as soon as her words left her throat. A few minutes later her mother left a suitcase outside of her door, "Chop chop, Lapis, you only have an hour."

As she started putting all of her precious belongings in the suitcase, she looked out to the shore of Beach City, knowing well she will never see her hometown again.

* * *

 **The last days of Fremont**

* * *

She felt a sharp sting sail across her cheek, whipping her head to the side. She brought her own hand to her face and rubbed herself to alleviate the pain. She looked at her offender, her eyes neither filled with remorse or hate.

"Why the hell did you kiss him? What the hell is wrong with you?!" he ranted and raved at her, "You're my girlfriend, I thought you loved me?!" it was somewhat ironic how no tears fell from her face, and yet his was an endless stream.

She turned around and started walking home, giving him the last words she would say in that town, "When we kiss, I don't feel anything."

* * *

 **The first days of Fremont**

* * *

She watched the sun fall into the ocean, memories pouring from when she was younger. She would watch the sun rise from the edge of the horizon as it shined into the mountains that stood proudly over Beach City. Here, her days would begin with the rays coming out from behind the mountains, and would end with the water shining into her eyes.

"Lapis?" she heard her mother from afar, "It's time to go! Dinner's ready!"

She walked from the beach to the house, not on the beach, but across the road from those houses.

For hundreds of days, Lapis and her mother would sit alone and eat whatever takeout she could find or the occasional cooked dinner. Tonight was one of those occasions, but all it amounted to was Lapis staring into a bowl of baked noodles rather than a cardboard box of fried noodles.

Her mother would ask about her day and she would give the most vanilla answers a young adult could give such as, "It's fine. It was good. It was alright." Their conversations would die after that.

Lapis would retreat into her room where she would lock herself away until the next day arrived. This would repeat again and again. Nashville, Kansas City, Wichita, and Fremont. Everything was different, but everything was still the same.

She would make friends, but she knew that they'd be gone at a moment's notice. That's how her life went, and that's how it would be.

* * *

 **Highschool Freshman Year Second Semester**

* * *

She was in the locker room, changing from a swimsuit to more casual clothing, all with an extremely pissed off expression. Once she was done changing, she reached for her phone and dialed her best-friend/new girlfriend's number. She was nearly tempted to throw her phone across the room when it went to voicemail, but instead let the automated message have it, "Hey asshole! You promised me that you'd be here for my Finals, and you were gonna be my ride! Where the hell are you?!"

All Lapis could do was walk outside and sit on a lonely curb to text her mother and sulk in peace. While she texted a plea for a ride, her phone started vibrating and playing a song from an anime, with Peridot's name in the caller ID.

She answered just so she could go in on her, "Finally decided to answer me?! Why the hell are you-

A clearly not Peridot voice interrupted her, "Uh, excuse me for asking but what is your relationship with Peridot Olivine, Miss Lazuli?"

This was a curveball she wasn't expecting but she answered anyway, "I'm her best friend. Also her girlfriend," she murmured that last part out of the phone's microphone, "Who is this?"

"I'm with the Children's Hospital of San Antonio. We were attempting to contact her parents, but Miss Olivine is incapacitated and cannot tell us her parents' phone number or the password to her phone," he explained to her, though she could hear him tip toeing around a subject.

"Wh-what? What's wrong with Peridot?"

and well, we're prepping Miss Olivine for surgery. You happened to call just as we got her into the emergency room," his voice was sympathetic, but he spoke very matter-of-factly.

"What?" a thousand scenarios were playing in her head, trying to figure out what would have happened to her best friend that required a visit to the emergency room, "Is-is she ok?"

She could hear the hesitation in his voice, "There isn't much I can tell you unless you're a member of the family," Lapis' could feel her own heart racing as thousands of images flowed through her head.

"Can you please tell me what her parent's numbers are?" the nurse asked again.

Lapis responded with Mrs. Olivine's number and promptly hung up. She clutched her chest as her breathing rapidly got faster and faster, "Peridot. What in god's name happened to you?"

* * *

 **College Freshman Year Second Semester**

* * *

One thing that both Lapis and Peridot had in common was that they lacked the talent to keep their rooms tidy as Lapis' bedroom was a complete mess with bottles and cans strewn all about. Even the main room of Lapis and Sadie's dorm was disorganized, but it was the only decent place for Peridot and Lapis to conversate.

"So, what's up? What did you need to talk about?" Lapis asked as she sat in a chair in front of the leather couch, "Need a drink? Or anything?"

"No, um. Yeah, I could use some water," Peridot replied while she took off her jacket, "It was a bad idea to wear this in Spring."

Lapis smiled while she walked to the mid-sized fridge, "I understand the pants but I don't understand why you'd wear a jacket in this freaking weather," Lapis popped open a cold one where she understood the reason why Peridot was wearing a jacket in this freaking weather, "Why are you wearing that shirt? I gave that to you as a joke."

Peridot's face was red with embarrassment over the scantily clad, well endowed anime women on her shirt, "IT WAS MY ONLY CLEAN SHIRT! And besides, you're not even wearing a shirt!" Peridot shouted.

Lapis looked down at herself, "Well would you look at that. Thank god I'm wearing a bra," she giggled while handing Peridot her water, "Sorry. I'm a little tipsy."

After Peridot gulped down half of the water bottle, she looked into Lapis' eyes and started to speak, "That's what I wanted to talk to you about, Lapis," she blinked and took a deep breath, "I heard you've been drinking."

It wasn't hard to see the color in Lapis' body fade, "Yeah. I've been drinking a bit. Who told you?"

Peridot ignored her question with a question, "Why? You're not twenty-one yet! You know how much trouble you could be in if someone found out what you've been doing?!"

Lapis looked out of the window to the bare, blue skies, "This isn't a recent thing, you know," she looked into Peridot's eyes, "It's been going on for a while."

* * *

For the past three days, total radio silence. Lapis checked her phone every hour on the hour to see if Peridot had even read her message. She couldn't focus on anything the teachers said, she wouldn't speak to anyone, and she didn't eat that whole time. Her mind didn't allow these pleasantries, as it only raced against itself wondering what in the lord's name happened to Peridot. She desperately tried to reel it in from going to the worst, but she inevitably had horrific images sneak inside.

She didn't know what would be worse, finally seeing what afflicted Peridot, or suffering from the constant visions. She didn't dwell on that thought for long.

Every day she sent the same message, "Peridot! What happened?! Are you ok?" at seven in the evening, and until the time came she would check to see the status of her girlfriend. For seventy-two hours, the results were always the same.

Alone in her own home, while her mother was away, she was restless. She couldn't think of anything else but to worry for Peridot. She couldn't stand it anymore and needed something to take her mind off of things.

Lapis was never unfamiliar with alcohol. Her mother would occasionally drink after a long day of work or when the memories of her husband returned. There was always a case of liquor and a bottle of vodka in the fridge, and Lapis was always told to never touch. But regardless, these thoughts needed to end, and hey, coconut vodka wouldn't taste that bad, right?

* * *

"That long?" Peridot stammered, "You've been drinking that long?"

There was no sense in any other answer besides a simple head nod, "It isn't perfect but it's the best way to sort my head. Happens every once in awhile, my head just goes somewhere that," she paused to look back at Peridot, "I don't like."

By now, Peridot wanted to know what was going on with her, and she was getting an idea, "It's me, isn't it? It's me! I'm making you feel like shit!" her voice was cracking up as her pants began getting covered in her tears.

A pair of tan arms pulled her body towards Lapis, and embraced her, "No. That's not true. You don't make me feel me like this-

She suddenly felt Peridot push her away, "YOU'RE LYING! I CAN SEE IT ON YOUR FACE!" an endless stream of tears was now pouring from her eyes, "You won't even look at me in the eye when you're talking to me. How the hell do you expect me to believe you?!"

Lapis wiped a few stray strands of her hair out of her eyes, and looked deep into Peridot's eyes, "What makes me feel like this, is what we are."

* * *

One week had passed. One very long week, and finally, Lapis received a message from whom she'd been waiting for what felt like centuries. She was in science class, and upon feeling that titilizing sensation of a vibration, she pulled out her phone and glued thousands of pixels to her eyes.

"Feeling better. I lost a little bit of myself, lol," were the only words Peridot Olivine responded with.

And though these words washed away all of the grim thoughts, a tide of worry came flowing through and her fingers soon went to work, "What happened? Are you ok? And what the hell do you mean by losing yourself?" she quietly mouthed these words as she texted them to her friend.

The five minutes were an even more hellish wait than the one-hundred-twenty-seven hours, but when she finally got an answer from Peridot, it wasn't one she wanted, "I don't have the words," was the first message received, "I'd like to see you," a comforting second message arrived, "I don't want you to see me," a haunting third message swung by, "...come. I've been feeling lonely," and a final comforting message left Lapis with the hope that Peridot was ok.

She was preparing herself for the worst.

As she always did.

* * *

"What do you mean by that? What we are?" Peridot questioned her.

Lapis wanted to look away from Peridot to give herself an easier time at explaining, but she faced he and kept her eyes focused on Peridot's face, "What we are, makes me feel," she paused, looking for the right words, "Empty."

As that word settled into Peridot, regret settled into Lapis, "I make you feel empty?" she wiped away her own tears and looked deeper into Lapis, "Just tell me! Tell me what's wrong!"

"YOU WANT TO KNOW WHAT'S WRONG!?" Lapis started yelling.

"YES! JUST FUCKING TELL ME WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG?!" Peridot yelled back.

"I DON'T THINK YOU LOVE ME ANYMORE!"

For a few moments, the silence deafened their ears, "What? What did you say?"

Lapis fought back against her own tears, "We've been dating for years. We've been together for so long we should have been married. I wanted to be with you ever since we slept together for the first time! You made me so happy when you sang on stage," now the tears wouldn't stop, "What happened to you?"

While Lapis cried into her lap, Peridot stood from the couch and looked down at her, "You want to know what happened?" she started pulling up the leg of her pants, showing off her metal prosthetic, "When this happened, just before the crash, I was ready to die."

* * *

Lapis had taken the bus for the first time, and made it to the hospital Peridot was staying. She was attempting to piece together what she knew about the situation with Peridot and the very little medical information she was aware of to figure out what had happened to her. She was rapidly tapping her foot and gnawing on her fingernails impatiently for the bus to make it to the hospital.

After an exit off the highway, the bus stopped a little ways from the hospital. Lapis bolted out of the bus and sprinted to the hospital entrance. She walked through the automatic doors and up to the receptionist, "Hi. I'm here to visit Peridot Olivine. What room is she staying in?"

If there is one thing that baffles both the writer and Lapis Lazuli, it is how lax security in hospitals are. No one will ever stop you from visiting a patient unless you look like a psychopath or if the patient is in an operation.

"She's in room 219. Are you family or friends?" the receptionist asked in a bored manner.

"Friends, girlfriends, whatever, thanks!" Lapis walked towards the nearest elevator and got in as soon as the door was wide enough to let her through. She hit the second floor button with enough force to crack it, and the wait continued as the elevator rose.

Her heart was racing, she needed to see Peridot. No matter what, she would be reunited with her love.

The elevator opened and Lapis power walked down the hall with her eyes looking for "219." She got a little turned around before she finally came across the room. The door was closed and the window only showed a TV and a bed with a foot standing erect and covered by pillows.

Lapis Lazuli opened the door and walked forward with her eyes closed, where she heard the sounds of an Italian plumber jumping. She opened her eyes and saw her, in a patient's gown, a bit thinner than the last time they met, and playing a game on her DS.

Peridot soon realized she wasn't alone, and instantly life returned to her, "Hey. I missed you."

And with four words, Peridot was able to get Lapis to open up the floodgates, as she stepped up to her injured friend. She had no words and could only bury her face into Peridot's shoulder, soaking it in tears.

"I missed you too."

* * *

"What? What did you just say?" Lapis' voice was now just a whisper.

Peridot trembled before she could begin speaking, "When, I saw it coming, there wasn't anything I could do. All I could do was watch," Peridot explained, her voice even more quiet than before, "I was ready. I was ready to die, and I only prayed that you would have a happy life," she could feel every inch on what remained of her left leg, "When I blacked out, I was sure I was dead. But, I woke up. I woke up with tubes sticking out of me. They had to cut my leg off, but," Peridot paused as her fists clenched, "I could still feel it. I could feel something that wasn't there! I felt all of the pain from the surgery. From that crash. I felt all of it," her body was shuddering, "And I can still feel it sometimes."

Peridot stared down at Lapis, "But when you came, it stopped. I saw you and," a smile appeared on her face as those memories flashed in her mind, "I didn't the feel that pain anymore."

"Peridot-

"So tell me. Where the hell do you get that idea from? That I don't love you anymore?! Because I haven't stopped!"

* * *

For the past hour, Lapis had her head leaning against Peridot's shoulder while she played a Mario RPG. Peridot wasn't in a very talkative mood but she would occasionally pause to explain what was going on in the story. It was a little too weird for Lapis to comprehend but she still watched. It meant the whole world just to be this close with her again.

Every now and then she would push herself closer to Peridot and kiss her on the cheek. Peridot would blush, but she would also turn to Lapis for a brief moment as if to say, "Hey you, quit being sweet."

But after a while, and simultaneously, Peridot and Lapis' stomachs growled like hungry bears after hibernation, "You want to score some food at the cafeteria?" Peridot asked.

"You think they'd let me eat here?" Lapis asked while her stomach growled again, "Screw it, I'm eating whether they like it or not!" she declared and started towards the door when she didn't hear Peridot coming, "Hey, I thought you wanted food?"

"Yeah! But. I kinda need some help getting into this thing," her voice lowered while pointing to a wheelchair next to her bed.

Lapis had one hand on her hip while she walked to the piece of medical equipment, "Doc still says you need to use this thing?" Lapis pulled it by Peridot's side, "You look fine enough to walk-

What Peridot had feared happened. She watched Lapis' smile turn into a face of shocked terror. And with it the pain returned.

Lapis couldn't say anything. All she could do was stare at what remained of Peridot, "Wh-what happened?" she approached the bed, and slumped on her knees while her eyes were focused on her wound.

Peridot covered her own eyes to stop the crying, "Please don't look at me. Don't look at that."

* * *

"Just tell me. Tell me why," Peridot begged for Lapis to speak to her.

Lapis wanted to jump out of the window than tell her what she really felt like, but she needed to tell her, or she would bottle up everything inside, "When you shut down, we barely saw each other. But I still loved you. I waited for you to get better," she brushed her arm across her eyes, "But I kept waiting. And waiting, and waiting. For two years you holed up in your room and you didn't talk to anyone, except me," she explained he feelings, "I'm so happy, that, I made you feel alive but. Oh god, I hate myself for feeling this now that you've told me what happened with you-

Now Lapis felt Peridot's hands on her shoulders. She looked up to Peridot's comforting face, "It's ok."

A few moments of regaining her composure allowed Lapis to return to speaking, "I wanted more. I wanted to move forward with what we are. I wanted to go to prom with you, to sit at lunch and hold your hand, I wanted to annoy the teachers when we kissed in the halls!

"When they asked me about my girlfriend, you don't know how awful it felt to tell them I didn't have one, just because I didn't have the guts to tell them about you. I wanted to be with you so much," her words ached her own throat when they were spoken, "I'm sorry. I kept reminding myself what you were going through, but I wanted more from you each time we saw each other. I'm sorry. I'm so, sorry!" Peridot held her tight, letting her cry in her shoulder, "I'm so selfish."

Peridot shook her head, "It's alright. I'm selfish too."

Though these past few moments were quite grim, Peridot's line got a small laugh out of Lapis, "Yeah. We're selfish people."

And with that, the two breathed a sigh of relief and slumped back into the couch, "So. What now?" Peridot asked.

"Maybe we need a break from each other," Lapis suggested, "I know that sounds weird considering we only see each other once a week."

"No. I think that's a good idea. I think we should give each other a month. I need to sort things out with this thing once and for all, and-

"I need to stop drinking, I know."

"I mean you can drink, as long as you're not putting others at risk. Wow I sounded like a parent," an idea sprang to her head, "We should plan something for the summer!"

"Excuse me?"

"Listen. We can do this. We'll have the most fun we could ever have! You just have to figure out what we're gonna do then, and I'll figure this thing out!" she explained her randomly thought up plan, "I'll make things up to you and to me," she came up to Lapis and kissed her on the cheek, "Thank you for always being there for me," she kissed her other cheek, "Thank you for being honest with me," and one final kiss on Lapis' nose, "And that's just the start of making up for you," she got up and walked up to the dorm's door but spoke to Lapis one last time, "I'm going to do everything I can to make myself a better person for you."

Lapis' fire was finally lit again, "Well good. Because I'll be an even better person for you. I'll be better for you than you are for me!"

"OH YEAH! YOU WANT TO MAKE THIS COMPETITION!" Peridot challenged her, before the two girls shared a laugh, "But one month from now. I'll see you again."

* * *

Peridot felt herself in the embrace of Lapis Lazuli, "Don't be ashamed of yourself. You're not ugly, and you're not a freak," she whispered, "You're still you. And I still love you," she smiled at her girlfriend, "Now c'mon! I'm starving!"

Peridot smiled with her, "You just gotta help me in this freaking chair!"

* * *

 **Around the same time in the San Antonio Airport**

* * *

A statuesque woman with dark skin stepped out of her private plane, greeted by an agent of her record company, "Miss Govender, it is a pleasure you to welcome you back to the City of San Antonio."

The woman adjusted her large, dark shades while she observed the city skyline, "Please. The pleasure is all mine," she moved her shades down to look at him with her red and blue eyes, "And please. Miss Govender is my initiate mother. Call me Garnet."

* * *

 **A/N I hope you really enjoyed this. I don't claim to be the best writer, but I tried as best as I could to try and make dialogue feel as natural and as organic as possible. But I do hope you liked this chapter. It is a sixth of this whole story.**

 **We finally have insight on these two characters but I would still like to see you guys fill in the blanks on other details. I try to leave things vague about certain aspects of the characters.**

 **And OH MY GOSH! GARNET! Initiate mother?! WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?! If initiate mother is not a real term, it basically means the mother that didn't birth you. At least that's what i gathered from Mad Max Fury Road.**

 **But yes Garnet is in this story, and we might be seeing a bit from Ruby and Sapphire ;)**

 **I'm going to be taking a small break from this story. School projects and I want to finish a few reviews. My review of Retro City Rampage is well overdue, and I need to work on it.**

 **Also a lot of the chapters are going to feel like one shots with different Steven Universe characters, while Peridot and Lapis still receive character development.**

 **Also, do me a favor and when you finish a chapter, go to YouTube and listen to the Real Folk Blues. Let me know if that makes the chapter feel any different or adds anything. Idk.**


	15. Chapter 15

**Kuwait - 1990**

* * *

The hot wind was blowing, jagged lines across the sand. Just like the buffalo, she was following the herd. She stood with her rifle tucked in both arms across her body, with her eyes set on the horizon while her buddies hung around, passing a beer around.

It was her dream to be on the battlefield. Her father in Vietnam, and his father in the Second World War before him and so on had lived and breathed fighting, and they were truly alive on the battlefield. Though they had no way to prove it, her family believed that their ancestors were Africa's greatest warriors.

And now it was her time to hold the torch. She was in the middle of the desert, and if she did not go out in a blazing glory, she would return a hero. That was her mission. She would fight for justice, in a forgotten place. She would fulfill her duty and vanish without a trace.

* * *

 **College Freshman Year Second Semester**

* * *

This was a soldier's duty, and in that sense, her duty.

It was a new day, and Peridot was going to change everything about herself. She had promised Lapis and she wasn't going to break it, and so she decided to start with her own room. She stood and looked at the piles of trash and clothes before her.

"No!" Peridot declared and walked out of her own room before an unknown, almost eldritch force pulled her back to set her on the path of righteousness, or at least made her clean her room. It took a long time, and it was amazing how much trash Peridot had produced in the matter of mere weeks. Granted, rooms get progressively messy as times go on, a part of life that mothers lack the capability to understand, but this was appaling as well as impressive. Even so, Peridot was determined to fight her way and get her room clean.

And it took some time but she did it. She was able to successfully throw away all of her trash, put every article of clothing in the laundry, and finally organize and dust her game collection. Three hours of work was able to produce a room that looked like a decent person was living there and not a gremlin. Not that Peridot would call herself a gremlin, but, I'll let you decide if she is or isn't. Regardless, Peridot felt pretty proud about herself, feeling like she had earned herself a day of gaming.

"Peridot!" her mother called out to her, "Dr. Maheswaran called, he wants to meet with you today!"

She poked her head out of her room, "It hasn't been a month yet, though!" she called back.

"He said he wanted to speak with you! Said the session is free if you see him today!" she explained, "Be ready in an hour before I drop you off!"

Peridot shut the door and lamented to herself, "Well, at least I can talk to him about what's been happening," she sighed, "You know what!? This will be fine!"

* * *

A smartly-dressed woman heard the tappings of fingers on a marble counter, with one tap sounding organic while the others sounding like the taps of plastic, "Have patience, dear. I will be ready in a few minutes."

"I don't see why I have to see him! Our only daughter is finally home and she has to deal with my stupid visit to the therapist!" she grunted from across their home.

"It's only for an hour dear, you can handle speaking to him," the woman hung blue-jeweled earrings from her lobes.

"Are you saying I can't handle some crackpot who gets paid to talk to people?! I stormed Saddam Hussein's palace! I can handle anything!"

She sighed to herself, "And here we go," she looked at herself to briefly admire her business casual outfit, "I'm ready if you are!"

She walked into the foyer of their house to join with her wife, wearing a suit she was clearly uncomfortable to wear and a red bandana across her forehead and around her curly, black hair, "You look nice, Sapphire," she smiled at her.

"And you look nice as well, Ruby," Sapphire complemented her back, "You're still going to wear the bandana?"

The two of them held hands as they walked out of their own house. To them, the house was normal, but to anyone else it seemed like they had come across a scale model of a house. The two build the house with their own money, and have proudly lived inside ever since 1999, a year after their daughter left home.

Ruby and Sapphire stepped into a chauffeur's car that had been working for Sapphire for years, even before she moved to America. He knew the routine, open the door for Sapphire and let Ruby close the door, otherwise she'd complain for half the journey.

"Where to, Miss Govender?" he asked as he put on the hat all chauffeurs must wear.

"To Dr. Maheswaran's office. Ruby has an appointment scheduled. After which we will rendezvous with our daughter. We will most likely be taking her limo to lunch, so it won't be necessary to stay," Sapphire listed off her instructions while he drove off.

As the drive went on, Sapphire noticed Ruby's foul mood, "Is something bothering you?"

"No, nothing at all," Ruby muttered, her thoughts wandering back to a time where things made sense.

* * *

 **Basic Training - Shortly Before the Gulf War**

* * *

Ruby stood in the Texas heat with dozens of other men. She was in formation with thre rest of the privates, standing stiff with her gut sucked in and her chest stuck out, while the drill sergeant stepped up to every recruit and barked horrible things in their face to get their reactions. If they responded with anything other than, "SIR, YES SIR!" he would have them do twenty push-ups. If they dared to laugh at his outlandish insults, they had to fifty push-ups, if he was feeling nice.

"Well what do we have here. What's going on, missy, did you miss the auditions for Wizard of Oz?!" she had heard this all her life, the same jokes, the same comments, all of it. This wasn't new, but it still rocked her to the core.

"SIR, NO SIR!" she practically screamed at him.

"Then what are you doing here, little miss?! You're far away from the elementary school, you know that?!" he was digging under every nerve just to get her to snap.

"SIR, I AM HERE TO FIGHT FOR MY COUNTRY, SIR!"

"Your country?! Well this ain't gonna be a Martin Luther King Hair Braiding Hang Out! Do you understand that, or do you think the world owes you a rifle?!" he was ignoring every other private just to see how far she could go, "What's the matter?! Cat got your tongue?! Do you want to punch me, Private?"

"SIR, I WISH TO BEAT YOU TO DEATH, SIR!" every private in that formation was outright appalled by this proclamation, and none of them were sure if she was serious or not.

"Oh do you?" he finally spoke in a civilized voice, "Well let me tell you. When you join the military the chance of you dying is increased ten times. And when a midget like you joins your chance of dying increases by thirty times. So let me ask you again, do you still want to go out and fight for your country?"

She stared straight ahead into his eyes and roared, "SIR, YES SIR!" and everyone at the base could hear her.

"Then it's a pleasure having you aboard," he whispered before returning to antagonizing the rest of the recruits.

* * *

Peridot walked up the steps to Maheswaran's office, taking one step on her right before bringing her left up, "Freaking stairs. The enemy of all amputees!" she complained, before setting her eyes on a very, very tall woman with an equally tall afro fit for her and a pair of dark shades covering her eyes, "Uh, h-hello."

"Hello to you as well," her voice was difficult to describe by Peridot, but she knew three things she could say: it was British, it was incredibly sexy, and it was also too much for her to handle or respond.

"I, uh. You come around here often, ma'am?" Peridot tried to avoid ogling her by staring down at the pavement.

"You know my eyes are up here, miss," Peridot froze up hearing that voice so close, "I'm used to people looking low, but not at the ground. I think you're a first."

Peridot looked up and basked in the glory of the lady in front of her, before meeting with her eyes. She had lifted up her glasses to get a better look at Peridot, letting her see her blue and red eyes.

When the tall woman winked at Peridot with said red eye, it caused her to faint.

For a few minutes, Peridot was completely out of it until she felt a hand repeatedly shaking her, "C'mon, kid," a voice was pulling her out of the darkness, "I have an appointment to get to," Peridot finally woke up and saw a woman with curly hair and a red bandana across her forehead.

Peridot initially thought the woman was kneeling down to talk to her but when Peridot lifted herself up and found herself at eye level with her, she said the words that most people would regret, "Are you the tall lady's daughter?"

Sapphire saw it coming, and so did Garnet, and all they could do was watch, "You think," the woman clenched her fists, "That I'm. Her daughter?" she stared down Peridot with a psychotic smile, ending her question with a pop in her neck.

Peridot was afraid of any answer she could give would offend the woman, so she stayed silent.

"Are you fucking deaf?!" she had her hands on Peridot's shirt and pulled her up to her eyes, "Do you have any fucking idea who you're fucking with?! I've seen more shit in a day than you will in your entire fucking life! I fought in two wars and I only lost three fingers!" Peridot didn't know or wanted to know which fingers was it, "I have fought for my country and I don't need some punk talking down to me and-

"Let her go, Ruby!" the woman in blue and the taller woman pulled her off of Peridot, "Please, let's sit and calm down for a while before we go inside," she urged Ruby.

Ruby looked down at Peridot, still lying on the concrete and scared, "Fine," she grumbled while walking away with who Peridot assumed was her wife.

As the couple walked away, the taller woman sat down next to Peridot, "To answer your question from earlier, no. That was my mother," Garnet sighed, looking downhill to see her mother trying to calm down Ruby.

"Oh, and the other woman is-

"Also my mother," Garnet explained, "Please forgive Ruby. She's got what you call a hair trigger temper when it comes to," Garnet moved to Peridot's ear, "Well everything."

From down the stairs, Ruby called out, "I HEARD THAT, YOUNG LADY!"

Garnet shook her head, "Sorry about all of this."

"It's fine, it's not the weirdest thing that's happened to me," Peridot explained, "But your voice sounds familiar. Have we met before?"

"I hear that a lot, but I don't think we've met," Garnet winked at her, "Perhaps you've heard of me? My name is Garnet Govender."

Peridot narrowed her eyes while her mind processed Garnet's name, "Garnet Govender. Where have I heard that before? I wouldn't know anyone with a South African last name, and though half the people I've met lately are named after rocks, I wouldn't know anyone named Garnet. Unless this Garnet is someone I should know of rather than know personally, then that would mean this Garnet expects me to know of her, either because she's extremely arrogant or it's just an expectation, which would mean that the woman I'm sitting next to is someone of notoriety."

Garnet watched Peridot mutter to herself, unsure how to react, "Do you need a hint?"

Her words were falling on deaf ears as Peridot was piecing together a puzzle leading her to figure out, "You're that singer Garnet! I know you now! I hear some of your songs on the radio!"

Garnet laughed a little bit, "Thank you. I'm always happy to meet someone who's heard me sing," she admitted, "Though this is certainly the oddest meeting I've had."

"I'd say same here but I haven't met anyone who was a fan of me," Peridot cracked a joke that got a little laugh out of Garnet.

Garnet got up and offered her hand to Peridot, "You should get going before my mom comes back. Maybe I'll see you around," she winked one last time at Peridot.

Peridot walked up the steps rather stiffly into the office building, turning to face Garnet to blurt out, "I HAVE A GIRLFRIEND!" and then she retreated.

Garnet looked at where Peridot was and shrugged, letting her sun shades fall back down.

Peridot walked towards the lone elevator in the building. Peridot hated walking up stairs as it would always make her leg ache after just one flight, but she hated it the dirty looks older folks gave her. She never felt like showing off her prosthetic, so eventually she gave up on what other people thought. And holing up in her room was another ways she achieved that goal.

She pressed the button and waited for the metal-moving room to come back down to earth when she started hearing people running down the stairs.

"Steven, why are we running down the stairs?" an unfamiliar voice called out a familiar name.

"Because the elevator's coming down, Connie!" yep, it was Steven, apparently dragging one of his friends for a hair-brained scheme.

Peridot rolled her eyes and stepped into the elevator, when Steven and a young girl raced inside when the doors were closing.

"Steven, why did we run into the elevator?" the girl asked.

"So we could get back to the top floor," Steven explained.

"But we were on the second floor, we could have just gone up the stairs,"

"Connie. They're stairs. Stairs are evil!"

"Normally I wouldn't agree, but he has a point. Stairs are the root of all evil," Peridot interjected.

Steven had stars in his eyes, getting to see his new friend again, "Peridot! It's so good to see you again! See, Connie? This is who I was talking about!"

Peridot laid her eyes on a tan-skinned young girl with long dark hair and a pair of oval glasses, not unlike the pair Peridot wore, "It's nice to met you! Steven's told me a lot about you," she offered her hand to her, "My name is Connie Maheswaran."

Peridot looked down at the young girl's hand and nodded, "Peridot Olivine. Are you related to Doug Maheswaran?"

"Yes! He's my father! Are you one of his patients?"

"Yeah," as with most people, Peridot could be a cold, closed-off person at first glance, but in this instance she was attempting to be, slightly courteous.

"Peridot is always quiet around new people," Steven explained to Connie, "I forgot to ask, how did your talk go with your friend?"

The older girl answered, "Better than I thought it would!" and to Connie it seemed as though a dying woman had springed back to life.

"Or maybe someone who's been dead has come back to life," Connie thought to herself and only to herself.

The elevator doors opened as Steven and Peridot talked about Lapis Lazuli. For a brief moment, Peridot thought her life had returned to normal, only for a familiar voice to shatter that illusion.

"Well, well, well! Look what we have here!" Peridot turned from Steven and Connie to see Ruby, her arms crossed and her face in a scowl, glaring down Peridot, "You think you're so above stairs!"

"Ruby, please don't," Sapphire asked of her wife, "Just let it go and speak with Dr. Maheswaran."

"I'm more than twice your age and I still climb the stairs! I fought in more wars than you've lived through! What's your excuse, punk?!" she practically yelled at Peridot.

Before, with her hands being close to her neck, Peridot was too scared to say anything, but now with a considerable distance between them, and an open elevator, she wasn't afraid to bark back, "What's your problem with me?! I don't like using the stairs, who the hell cares?!"

From behind Ruby, both Garnet and Sapphire were shaking their heads 'no' to get Peridot to stop, "What's my problem?" she clenched her left fist.

* * *

 **Iraq - 1991**

* * *

As the sun went down, slowly changing the deserts bright colors into a subdued bluish-gray ocean, a group of soldiers hid behind a short wall as a tank patrolled their perimeter.

Ruby held her rifle close as she felt the vibrations of the tank, not taking a breath until the tank had passed, "This is Charlie Squad! Requesting air support. I repeat, requesting air support, we have a tank pinning us and we cannot proceed until that thing goes down."

As the wind howled the noise of a diesel engine, Ruby overheard what support had to say, "That's a negative Charlie Squad. We fly any jets over your position or they'll get shot down," the respondent stated, "You're on your own, Charlie Squad."

Ruby peaked out of cover and saw the tank swinging by once more. She reached for a grenade and got into a running start position, "Cover me."

"I've seen everything this world has to offer. I've seen the good, the bad, and the worse," she held up her left hand, and pulled off her pinky, ring, and middle fingers, "And I've lost a bit of myself. I fought for my country, I lived on the battlefield," she explained while reattaching the prosthetics to her hand, "So when I see a little shit like you, thinking you're better than me when you don't know what I've been through, I get a little irritated."

"I don't think I'm better than you," Peridot spoke, "I've never thought I was better than anyone. I'm sorry I insulted you, but you don't have the right to say I don't what it's like! I know what you feel like, to lose parts of yourself," Peridot looked Ruby directly in the eye, "It makes you feel like you're less of a person."

"What the hell are you talking?"

Peridot reached down to her pants and pulled the left leg up to show the prosthetic holding her up, "I've lost a part of myself. I let this thing control me, and make me who I was for four years."

When Ruby laid her eyes on Peridot's prosthetic leg, all of the anger was washed away with remorse and shame, "Where'd you lose it? Was it in a war?" she whispered.

"No. I lost it in a car accident," Peridot, spoke very clearly, with no hesitation in her voice.

Garnet whispered to her mother and asked, "Is mother backing down?"

To which Sapphire replied with, "I-I don't know?"

Ruby took a deep breath and walked up to Peridot, "I'm sorry. I can be a hardass sometimes, or what the doctor likes to call 'unadjusted.' Look, let's shake, and let bygones be bygones," she offered her hand to the blonde.

Peridot reached for Ruby's hand and shook it, though she wasn't expecting for her hand to be crushed by Ruby's, "Let me tell ya. I signed up for the army so I could make this country safe for people like you," Ruby started going on about while Peridot's hand suffered, "That and I wanted to be like my dad and grandpa, but whenever I see someone who's suffered, even more than I have, I can't help but offer my deepest sympathy and respect," she pulled Peridot down to where they were at eye level, "Let me tell you, pity is a load of crap. I've never pitied a single person in my life, and I don't plan to. So as long as you don't pity me, I won't pity you."

Peridot absorbed Ruby's words and nodded, "Yeah, fuck pity. I've never needed it."

Ruby had the biggest and widest smile on her face, "That's what I like to hear," she stepped away from Peridot to walk into Dr. Maheswaran's waiting room, before turning to Peridot one last time, "Hey when this whole world goes to hell, you and I will be back to back, taking on anyone who gets in our way!"

"Uh, sure. I guess?" Peridot replied.

Ruby laughed as she closed the door behind her, leaving Peridot in the middle of the hall, with Garnet and Sapphire surprised out of their minds.

"I don't believe it. She actually got mom to back down," Garnet said in awe.

"And she actually earned her respect," Sapphire gazed at Peridot in wonderment, "For the first time since I met her, Ruby gave someone her respect," Sapphire walked up to Peridot and nodded to her, "I don't know who you are, but please consider yourself blessed."

"I, uh, sure will!" Peridot, after two of the strangest encounters she had with anyone, she didn't know how to respond to anything, "I'm gonna go and wait for my turn with Maheswaran."

"I'll see ya later, Peridot!" Steven, yeah remember him, called out as he and Connie walked down the stairs.

"See ya, Steven Universe!" Peridot called back as she walked into the waiting room, a little thankful that Ruby was already speaking with Maheswaran.

But as Steven and Connie walked down the stairs, Garnet turned and watched them walk down the steps, muttering to herself, "Universe?"

* * *

A middle-aged major walked through the ranks of his privates under the hot Texas heat, "I want you all to know! That I have a standard for this company! During my vacation in Kuwait, I had a little lady in my squad. And she had more guts than all of you combined!" he yelled at eighty-four grown men and women, "While I was stuck in a corner, desperately calling for help, like a child calling for its mommy, she went out and took on a tank on her own!"

He reminisced how he and the rest of his squad had to suddenly cover a little woman as she ran up to a tank, dodging gunfire.

"She was able to get to the tank's gun, and she threw a grenade inside! BOOM!" he could still feel the explosion and the ringing in his ear never went away, "And guess what! She was half your size! So if a little lady can take on a tank on her own, I expect all of you to do the same!"

"SIR, YES SIR!"

* * *

Ruby sat in the leather couch of Dr. Maheswaran's office, her eyes looking forward as the good doctor was finishing up the notes from their session, "You know, doc. My daughter Garnet is in town visiting."

"Oh? That's good to hear! What's the occasion?" he asked as he jotted down the last of the notes.

"Believe it or not, she's wanting to ask me about this man I met a long time ago," Ruby grinned, "I knew him for two weeks around Delaware. When I first met him, I thought he was some bum with a guitar. Turns out he was pretty good at picking those strings, and we shared a few drinks before I was transferred to Kuwait. Haven't seen him in a long time, so I'm not sure why my daughter thinks I'll know where he is,"

"Who is this mystery man?"

"Greg Universe," Ruby started laughing, "When he told me his name I thought he was joking, and then it turns out he changed his name to that! Who'd be dumb enough to call yourself that?!

"But Garnet is looking for him. Not sure why, might have something to do with music," she explained, "Anyway, is our time done?"

Dr. Maheswaran looked at his watch and nodded, "I look forward to our next talk, Miss Govender."

Ruby walked out of the office saying, "I'm sure you do, doc. I'm sure you do."

* * *

 **A/N I don't think this chapter is the best it could have been, but I did try to make it as best as it could be. I'm a little worried about some of the reactions, but this is my first attempt at writing about military. I do apologize if some of this is a bit much or too vulgar, but I attempted to capture what a late-eighties early-nineties drill sergeant would have been like with some elements of Gunnery Sergeant Hartman. I do plan on writing a Voltron fic set in the Vietnam War, so this was a bit of practice for when I eventually write it.**  
 **If there needs to be more clarity about shifts in scenery and time, let me know in the comment section.**  
 **Anyway! How did y'all enjoy the inclusion of Ruby and Sapphire. Maybe this is refreshing having Ruby as a character independent of Sapphire and Garnet? Garnet is gonna play a role later in this story with Greg Universe, just sit tight and it'll be there!**  
 **Anyways, I'll see you all next time!**


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